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. One can only suspect.
When I tell you that no one from this country was invited to the
conference, I think you will be able, broadly speaking, to divine
its purpose. The clouds have been gathering for a good many years,
and we have only buried our heads a little deeper in the sands. We
have had our chances and wilfully chucked them away. National
Service or three more army corps four years ago would have brought
us an alliance which would have meant absolute safety for twenty-one
years. You know what happened. We have lived through many rumours
and escaped, more narrowly than most people realise, a great many
dangers, but there is every indication this time that the end is