he did not swerve.

He had as implicit a confidence that one day or other Kara, the
magnificent, would play into his hands.

There were some queer stories in circulation concerning the Greek,
but on the whole they were stories and rumours which were
difficult to separate from the malicious gossip which invariably
attaches itself to the rich and to the successful.

One of these was that Kara desired something more than an Albanian
chieftainship, which he undoubtedly enjoyed. There were whispers
of wider and higher ambitions. Though his father had been born a
Greek, he had indubitably descended in a direct line from one of
those old Mprets of Albania, who had exercised their brief
authority over that turbulent land.

The man's passion was for power. To this end he did not spare
himself. It was said that he utilized his vast wealth for this
reason, and none other, and that whatever might have been the
irregularities of his youth - and there were adduced concrete
instances - he was working toward an end with a singleness of
purpose, from which it was difficult to withhold admiration.

T. X. kept in his locked desk a little red book, steel bound and
triple locked, which he called his "Scandalaria." In this he
inscribed in his own irregular writing the titbits which might not
be published, and which often helped an investigator to light upon
the missing threads of a problem. In truth he scorned no source
of information, and was conscienceless in the compilation of this