The fact of the matter is that things are going on in Germany, just at the present moment, the knowledge of which is of vital interest to us." "Then these arrests," Hamel remarked, "are really bona fide ?" "Without a doubt," his companion agreed.

"I only wonder there have not been more.

I am telling you what is a pretty open secret when I tell you that there is a conference due to be held this week at some place or another on the continent--I don't know where, myself--which will have a very important bearing upon our future.

We know just as much as that and not much more." "A conference between whom ?" Hamel asked.
Kinsley dropped his voice almost to a whisper.
"We know," he replied, "that a very great man from Russia, a greater still from France, a minister from Austria, a statesman from Italy, and an envoy from Japan, have been invited to meet a German minister whose name I will not mention, even to you.

The subject of their proposed discussion has never been breathed.