She did not answer at once. "I know to whom you
refer, Mr. Harley," she said, finally. "But it was I who had made
this gentleman's acquaintance. My father did not know him."
"Then I wonder why he mentioned him?" murmured Harley.
"That I cannot imagine. I have been wondering ever since Doctor
McMurdoch told me."
"You recognize the person to whom Sir Charles referred?"
"Yes. He could only have meant Ormuz Khan."
"Ormuz Khan--" echoed Harley. "Where have I heard that name?"
"He visits England periodically, I believe. In fact, he has a
house somewhere near London. I met him at Lady Vail's."
"Lady Vail's? His excellency moves, then, in diplomatic circles?
Odd that I cannot place him."
"I have a vague idea, Mr. Harley, that he is a financier. I seem
to have heard that he had something to do with the Imperial Bank
of Iran." She glanced naively at Harley. "Is there such a bank?"
she asked.
"There is," he replied. "Am I to understand that Ormuz Khan is a
Persian?"
"I believe he is a Persian," said Phil Abingdon, rather
confusedly. "To be quite frank, I know very little about him."
Paul Harley gazed steadily at the speaker for a moment. "Can you
think of any reason why Sir Charles should have worried about
this gentleman?" he asked.
The girl lowered her head again. "He paid me a lot of attention,"
she finally confessed.
"This meeting at Lady Vail's, then, was the first of many?"
"Oh, no--not of many! I saw him two or three times.
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