that isn't my affair. Have you seen the second edition?"

The girl shook her head.

"Haven't I told you that I never read the papers? I only saw what
they showed me in at the Carlton."

"The Press Association have cabled to America, but no one seems
to be able to make out exactly who the fellow is. His letter to
the captain of the steamer was from the chairman of the company,
and his introduction to the manager of the London and North
Western Railway Company was from the greatest railway man in the
world. Mr. Hamilton Fynes must have been a person who had a
pretty considerable pull over there. Curiously enough, though,
only the name of the man was mentioned in them; nothing about his
business, or what he was doing over on this side. He was simply
alluded to as 'Mr. Hamilton Fynes--the gentleman bearing this
communication.' I expect, after all, that you know more about him
than any one."

She shook her head.

"What I know," she said, "or at least most of it, I am going to
tell you. A few years ago he was a clerk in a Government office
in Washington. He was steady in those days, and was supposed to
have a head. He used to write me occasionally. One day he turned
up in London quite unexpectedly. He said that he had come on
business, and whatever his business was, it took him to St.
Petersburg and Berlin, and then back to Berlin again. I saw quite
a good deal of him that trip."