"I want you to understand this, James," he began. "Your sister is meddling in certain things she'd best leave alone."
"No use talking to me," he observed. "Pamela's her own mistress, and she's gone her own way ever since she came of age."
"She's got to quit," Fischer pronounced. "That's all there is about it. You and I will have to talk this out. Where are you dining?"
"Downstairs," Van Teyl replied gloomily. "I was thinking of waiting for Pamela."
"You leave word to have your people let you know directly she arrives," Fischer advised, "and come along with me."
Van Teyl allowed himself to be led towards the door. Nikasti, with a due sense of his new duties, glided past them, rang for the lift, and watched them descend. Fischer turned at once towards the dining room.
"Thank God we're in a civilised country," he observed, "and that I don't have to change when I don't want to!"
They found a quiet table, and Fischer, displaying much interest in the menu, ordered a somewhat extensive dinner.
"Grapefruit and Maryland chicken are worth coming back to," he declared. "Now see here, James, let's get to business. You've got to help me with your sister."
"But how?" Van Teyl demanded. "Pamela and I are good pals, of course, but she has a will of her own in all she does, and I don't fancy that anything I could say would influence her very much."
"There are two things about your sister," Fischer continued. "The first is that she's got to quit this secret service business she's got herself mixed up in."
"Don't talk nonsense!" Van Teyl exclaimed. "Pamela doesn't care a fig about politics."
"You don't know much about your sister, young fellow," he said. "Internal politics over here may not interest her a cent, but she's crazy about America as a country, and she's shrewd enough to see things coming that a great many of you over here aren't looking for. Anyway, she came bang up against me in a little scheme I had on the night before I left Europe, and somewhere about her she's got concealed a document which I'd gladly buy for a quarter of a million dollars."
"Some money!" he observed. "How did she come by the prize?"
"Played up for it, just as I did," Fischer replied. "She was clever enough to make use of my scaffolding, and got up the ladder first. I'm not squealing, but I've got to have that document, whatever it costs me."