It was about eight o'clock when I put my key in the door. I found Kim
very much awake and somewhat excited. At this unseemly hour there was
a visitor! This was all the more unusual for I was not in the habit
of receiving my most intimate friends or acquaintances at my private
quarters.
"_Koom_, massa!" (Salute, master!) "Gentleman him here to see you.
Kim him don't know if he do right, maybe wrong; but gentleman said it
all right that him come in."
All apologies, Kim was fretting himself almost into a nervous collapse
over the visitor. Rather curious, I walked into the sitting-room and
found a man I had seen pretty often at the Wilhelmstrasse. I knew him
to be Herr von Stammer, the right hand man of von Wedel. Although we
were well known to each other by sight, we hardly conversed ten words
outside of official business. At the time I thought it a little odd
that the usual procedure was not observed, that someone came to my
room instead of my going to the Wilhelmstrasse, seemed a bit unusual.
As things developed, however, I saw a possible reason why.
"Your quarters are pretty well guarded here, Doctor," said Herr von
Stammer. "Your Cerberus didn't want to let me in."
I half smiled. I could imagine what a battle a stranger must have to
get by Kim.
"We received your wire from Albeck and as the Count is inaccessible,
your orders will come through me this time.
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