"Believe me when I say that you are one man in whom I have never been
disappointed. Accept this as my farewell, for now I assume again the
name and position rightfully mine. And know, too, that I shall always
cherish the belief that you will remember me as
"Your friend,
"ISABEL THORNE.
"P. S. The prince and I left the steamer at Montauk Point, on a
tug-boat."
Mr. Grimm kissed the note twice, then burned it.
XXII
THE COMPACT
A room, low-ceilinged, dim, gloomy, sinister as an inquisition chamber;
a single large table in the center, holding a kerosene lamp, writing
materials and a metal spheroid a shade larger than a one-pound shell;
and around it a semicircle of silent, masked and cowled figures. There
were twelve of them, eleven men and a woman. In the shadows, which grew
denser at the far end of the room, was a squat, globular object, a
massive, smooth-sided, black, threatening thing of iron.
One of the men glanced at his watch--it was just two o'clock--then rose
and took a position beside the table, facing the semicircle. He placed
the timepiece on the table in front of him.
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