"That's a matter which concerns spheres altogether over my head, Mr.
Crane."

"But Mr. Ramsey says that it's entirely owing to Mr. Froelich's
introduction that he provided the lady with passports, that he'd known
her through him, and having been a friend of Mr. Froelich for many years,
he had implicitly trusted him. He was here only a few minutes before you
came, and he told me that there was no doubt at all but that he had been
the victim of a conspiracy between Froelich and this Madame de Corantin.
He admitted that he ought to have been on his guard, considering that Mr.
Froelich's name was German, and of course it was natural that he would
have German sympathies."

"Um! And what do you think, Mr. Crane?"

The Assistant Commissioner was silent for a moment.

"You see, I don't know Mr. Froelich," he said.

"But you do know Mr. Ramsey," replied Clancey.

"Not well."

"What about his chief? You know him well enough. Why not ask him?"

The Assistant Commissioner's answer was to throw a note across the table
to his questioner. It ran as follows--