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brass lock with a key which Barnett kept in his watch-pocket.
     
                  "What do you think?" Barnett asked.
     
                  "That red scarf has been refolded. Your two light sweaters are out of line. Someone has been through this bag also. Very carefully, but undoubtedly."
     
                  "But why? Nothing seems to be missing. Is anything missing from this bag?"
     
                  "No. Your gold cufflinks and studs are still here. My bracelets and earrings are still here. They're not particularly valuable, but they are certainly portable. Whoever searched our belongings thinks it more important that we remain unaware of it than that he makes a profit. If I weren't, as you keep telling me, excessively orderly and organized, we never would have noticed."
     
                  "That Kasper fellow!" Barnett said.
     
                  "My belief also," Cecily told him. "It was obvious from his second sentence that he was one of the group following us. "
     
                  " His second sentence?"
     
                  "Certainly. He said that the conduttore told him who we are. The conductor of this train has no idea who we are. The ticket was booked by the hotel, and they got our name wrong."
     
                  "That's right," Barnett said.
     
                  "Kasper was just keeping us out of the way, so that his companions could search our belongings."
     
                  "Say," Barnett remembered, "he and that adolescent came into the dining car from the rear of the train. I'll bet they were in the baggage van. It must have disappointed them to discover that our luggage was sent on ahead."
     
                  Cecily closed the portmanteau and fastened the straps. "I feel degraded," she said. "I must have all my clothing laundered before I wear any of it again."
     
                  "I believe it has something to do with Holmes or Professor Moriarty," Barnett said.
     
                  "Well I hope that, whoever they are and whatever they want, that they're done with us," Cecily said. "I don't want this to go on and ruin our vacation."
     
                  "We won't let it!" Barnett said stoutly.
     
                  "Well it already is!" Cecily said, and burst into tears. "First these people are following us all over, and then you won't believe me when I tell you about it, and then they come into our very own railway carriage and paw through our personal belongings. I'm sorry, Benjamin, but I am very upset."
     
                  Barnett pulled a clean pocket-handkerchief from his jacket and passed it to his wife. "There, there," he said, taking her in his arms. "Mustn't be upset, really you mustn't. We won't let anything else happen to spoil our vacation. I've learned my lesson. From now on I shall listen abjectly to anything you say."
     
                  "Not abjectly, my love," Cecily said, wrapping her arms around his neck, "but carefully and honestly. I am usually right, you know."
     
                  "Yes, dear," Barnett said.
     

CHAPTER FOUR — THE FREEDOM LEAGUE
     
    One man, with a dream, at pleasure,
    Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
    And three with a new song's measure
    Can trample a kingdom down
    — Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy
     
                  The Vienna cell of the Geheime Verein f ü r Freiheit, the Secret Freedom League, met in the box cellar of the Werfel Chocolate manufactory in the Mariahilf District of Vienna. A dank, cold, windowless room separate from the main cellar, it held a table, a few chairs, a row of cupboards along one wall, and an assortment of abandoned packing crates. What light there was came from the glare of a single-mantle gas fixture emerging from the ceiling, and the glow of a couple of ancient oil lamps suspended from hooks in