"I quite admit that," responded Forsyth, boldly. "My uncle has been doing his best to protect the Duke's life, and as in duty bound I have used my efforts to assist him--up to a certain point."
"What do you mean--up to a certain point?"
"I mean that as the Duke seems now to have taken matters actively into his own hands by opening up communication with you, I am naturally rather at the disposition of my employer than of anyone else."
"Truly a faithful servant," said Ziegler, with a strong suspicion of a sneer. "And now, Mr. Forsyth, I have a question to ask which you are at liberty to answer or not as you please, but on which the future security of his Grace will probably depend. I shall draw my own deductions from a refusal to answer, and take it as an affirmative. Has the Duke disclosed to either you or General Sadgrove, or, as far as you are aware, to anyone else, the reason of his recent differences with us?"
Forsyth rejoiced that he was able to reply in the negative. "No," he said promptly and with evident truth; "he has always steadily refused to enlighten my uncle and myself as to the cause of his being so persecuted. We have been kept absolutely in the dark."
He did not feel called upon to add, as he might have done, that a good deal of that darkness had been penetrated by General Sadgrove's acumen, and that the design on Senator Sherman's gold bonds was an open book to them.
Ziegler, however, was satisfied with the reply. Signing to the pretentious Benzon, who throughout the interview had hovered close to his master's couch, he conferred with him in a whisper, and then addressed Forsyth again with a request that he would wait for a few minutes in the ante-room, when a letter for the Duke would be handed to him and he would be free to depart.
"Good-day to you, sir," added the arch-plotter. "I regret that my infirmities preclude me from offering you hospitality. These little encounters become, I find, more fatiguing with advancing years."
Bidding him a curt good-morning, Forsyth returned to the ante-room, accompanied by the cadaverous individual, who had also been present at the interview. Benzon remained behind, softly shutting the door on them, and there was a distinct click of the key being turned in the lock. His companion making no overture for conversation, Forsyth sat down and affected to read a newspaper, though he was really straining his ears to catch what passed in the inner room. Already perplexed by having seen no signs of communication between Ziegler and the next suite, he was trying to ascertain if a conference was now proceeding with the fair tenant next door. No sound reached him, however, till after the lapse of some twenty minutes Benzon came swiftly out of the inner room with a heavily sealed letter in his hand.