It is true that by holding me up and obstructing my message, you may bring about the evil you seek, but unless that word is cabled back to New York, and my senders believe that my message has been delivered, there can be no certainty.

What has been trusted to me as the safest means of transmission, might, in an emergency, be committed to a cable." "Excellent reasoning," Fentolin agreed.

"For the very reasons you name that word will be given." Mr.Dunster's face was momentarily troubled.

There was something in the still, cold emphasis of this man's voice which made him shiver.
"Do you think," Mr.Fentolin went on, "that I spend a great fortune buying the secrets of the world, that I live from day to day with the risk of ignominious detection always hovering about me--do you think that I do this and am yet unprepared to run the final risks of life and death?
Have you ever talked with a murderer, Mr.Dunster?
Has curiosity ever taken you within the walls of Sing Sing?
Have you sat within the cell of a doomed man and felt the thrill of his touch, of his close presence?
Well, I will not ask you those questions.

I will simply tell you that you are talking to one now." Mr.Dunster had forgotten his extinct cigar.