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“Ought I not to know the nature of the documents?”

“I have been expecting that question. Do you press it?”

“Not if it embarrasses you to answer. But how shall I know them when they are given up to me?”

“They are very confidential,” he said, his face wrinkling in perplexed thought. He paused, and then with a sigh added, very slowly, the words seeming to be wrung from him almost: “I suppose there is no other way. They affect Germany and Austria. They include a secret treaty with Austria and a number of plans of fortresses, and the army mobilization schemes, etc., of our neighbours.”

“I can understand your anxiety, Prince,” I said drily.

“They must be recovered, M. Denver, at any cost or sacrifice,” he answered with intense earnestness.

“I will do my best,” I replied, and then we turned to discuss the details of the project. He told me his arrangements, the chief of which was his scheme to secure my safety.

“I shall take exactly the same precautions as if you were His Majesty himself,” he said. “The carriage in which you travel will be followed; its description will be telephoned everywhere, so that it may be instantly recognized by our agents who to-morrow night will be stationed at the corner of every street of the capital. Within a minute of your entering the house, wherever it is, a large force will commence to converge upon it; and if there is any delay or treachery the place will be carried by force.”