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'Not yet.'

'Latimer sank back in his chair again, brooding. 'And he's afraid, you say?'

'Terrified,' Laurens assured him. 'I believe he would betray anybody or anything to save his dirty skin.'

That brought Latimer suddenly to his feet in some excitement. 'It is what I desired to know. Sir, if your committee will give me this man—let me have my way with him—it is possible that through him I may be able to discover what we require.'

They looked at him in wonder and some doubt. That doubt Laurens presently expressed. 'But if he doesn't know?' he asked. 'And why should you suppose that he does?'

'Sir, I said through him, not from him. Let me have my way in this. Give me twenty-four hours. Give me until to-morrow evening at latest, and it is possible that I may have a fuller tale to tell you.'

There was a long pause of indecision. Then, very coldly, almost contemptuously in its lack of expression, came a question from Rutledge:

'And if you fail?'

Latimer looked at him, and the lines of his mouth grew humorous.