my friend, may yet become famous."

"If you and I could buy its secrets," Dorward remarked, finally
shaping a cigarette and lighting it, "we should be big bidders, I
think. I'd give fifty thousand dollars myself to be able to cable
even a hundred words of their conversation."

"For the truth," Bellamy said, "the whole truth, there could be no
price sufficient. We made our effort in different directions, both
of us. With infinite pains I planted - I may tell you this now that
the thing is over - seven spies in the Palace. They have been of
as much use as rabbits. I don't believe that a single one of them
got any further than the kitchens."

Dorward nodded gloomily.

"I guess they weren't taking any chances up there," he remarked.
"There wasn't a secretary in the room. Carstairs was nearly thrown
out, and he had a permit to enter the Palace. The great staircase
was held with soldiers, and Dick swore that there were Maxims in the
corridors."

Bellamy sighed.

"We shall hear the roar of bigger guns before we are many months
older, Dorward," he declared.

The journalist glanced at his friend keenly. "You believe that?"

Bellamy shrugged his shoulders.