Chapter 14

to give him the answer which he evidently wanted.

'But _they_ never can understand that,' he added. 'The moment a man dines with a Secretary of State in London they get it into their absurd heads that that means the pledging of the whole Army, Navy, and Reserve Forces of England to any particular cause which the man invited to dinner may be supposed to represent. Here, in nine cases out of ten, the man invited to dinner does not exchange one confidential word with the Secretary of State, and the day but one after the dinner the Secretary of State has forgotten his very existence.'

'Oh, but is that really so?' Dolores asked, in a somewhat aggrieved tone of voice. She was disposed to resent the idea of any Secretary of State so soon forgetting the existence of the Dictator.

'Not in this case, dear girl--not in this case certainly. Sir Rupert and Ericson are great friends; and they say Ericson is going to marry Sir Rupert's daughter.'

'Oh, do they?' Dolores asked earnestly.

'Yes, they do; and the Gloria folk have heard of it already, I can tell you; and in their stupid outsider sort of way they go on as if their little twopenny-halfpenny Republic were being made an occasion for great state alliances on the part of England.'

'What is she like?' Dolores murmured faintly. 'Is she very pretty? Is she young?'

'I am told so,' Sarrasin answered vaguely. To him the youth or beauty of Sir Rupert's daughter was matter of the slightest consideration.

'Told what?' Dolores asked somewhat sharply. 'That she is young and pretty, or that she isn't?'

'Oh, that she is young and very pretty, quite a beauty they tell me; but you know, my dear, that with Royal Princesses and very rich girls a little beauty goes a long way.'

'It wouldn't with him,' Dolores answered emphatically.

'With whom?' Captain Sarrasin asked blankly, and Dolores saw that she had all unwittingly put herself in an awkward position. 'I meant,' she tried to explain, 'that I don't think his Excellency would be governed much by a young woman's money.'

'But, my dear girl, where are we now? Did I ever say he would be?'

'Oh, no,' she replied meekly, and anxious to get back to the point of the conversation. 'Then you think, Captain Sarrasin, that his Excellency has enemies here in London--enemies from Gloria, I mean.'

'I shouldn't wonder in the least if he had,' Sarrasin replied cautiously. 'I know there are some queer chaps from Gloria about in London now. So we come to the point, dear girl, and now I answer the question we started with. That's why I am staying in this hotel.'

Dolores drew a deep breath.

'I knew it from the first,' Dolores said. 'I was sure you had come to watch over him.'

'That's exactly why I am here. Some of them, perhaps, will only know me by name as a soldier of fortune, and may think that they could manage to humbug me and get me over to their side. So they'll probably come to me and try to talk me over, don't you see? They'll try to make me believe that Ericson was a tyrant and a despot, don't you know; and that I ought to go back to Gloria and help the Republic to resist the oppressor, and so get me out of the way and leave the coast clear to them--see? Others of them will know pretty well that where I am on watch and ward, I am the right man in the right place, and that it isn't of much use their trying on any of their little assassination dodges here--don't you see?'

Dolores was profoundly touched by the simple vanity and the sterling heroism of this Christian soldier--for she could not account him any less. She believed in him with the fullest faith.

'Does his Excellency know of this?' she asked.

'Know of what, my dear girl?'

'About these plots?' she asked impatiently.

'I don't suppose he thinks about them.'

'All the more reason why we should,' Dolores said emphatically.

'Of course. There are lots of foreign fellows always staying here,' Sarrasin said, more in the tone of one who asks a question than in that of one who makes an assertion.

'Yes--yes--of course,' Dolores answered.

'I wonder, now, if you would be able to pick out a South American foreigner from the ordinary Spanish or Italian foreigner?'

'Oh, yes--I _think_ so,' Dolores answered after a second or two of consideration. 'Moustache more curled--nose more thick--general air of swagger.'

'Yes--you haven't hit it off badly at all. Well, keep a look-out for any such, and give me the straight tip as soon as you can--and keep your eyes and your senses well about you.'

'You may trust me to do _that_,' the girl said cheerily.

'Yes, I know we can. Now, how about your father?'

'I think it will be better not to bring father into this at all,' Dolores answered very promptly.

'No, dear girl? Now, why not?'

'Well, perhaps it would seem to him wrong not to let out the whole thing at once to the authorities, or not to refuse to receive any suspicious persons into the house at all, and that isn't, by any means, what you and I are wanting just now, Captain Sarrasin!'

'Why, certainly not,' the old soldier said, with a beaming smile. 'What a clever girl you are! Of course, it isn't what we want; we want the very reverse; we want to get them in here and find out all about them! Oh, I can see that we shall be right good pals, you and I, dear girl, and you must come and see my wife. She will appreciate you, and she is the most wonderful woman in the world.'