Dario Pless is the spymaster for Spies. Ltd.
Richard Sheridan is an agent with the British Secret Service.
The two men will become archenemies when the activity of Spies Ltd. begin to worry the British intelligence organization enough to have its director dispatch Sheridan to investigate the international Spies Ltd. and later seek to stymie its nefarious activities.
Before we meet the dangerous Pless, leader of Spies Ltd., we are introduced to his even more impressive and worrisome sister, Thelma. She is a very famous, extremely popular diseuse [female professional storyteller/singer - you're welcome!], "a character impersonator who ran the whole range of human types of every race and in no less than eight different languages" and who brought her act to the level of perfection. As gifted as she was in her performance, she was even better at the handling of her career for she "never allowed the public to tire of her. She gave them just enough and then vanished". When she was not on the stage, she devoted her time to her brother, a young man whomthe world never saw, whose intimates were few, and whose whole existence was one of pathetic invalidism. For Dario Pless was one of those unfortunate beings whose life was overshadowed by the curse of haemophilia.
The third member of the trio that make up the leadership of Spies Ltd. is Dr. Leon Zeiss, a "tall, dark-haired man with a strikingly intellectul face. He was beautifully turned out and groomed and though his lips smiles, his eyes swept the assembly with soimething of haughty disdain". As far as the world knows, Zeiss is the specialized physician who is in the employ of the Pless's
Dario Pless is described as a young man who was extraordinarily good-looking, though of a somewhat effeminate type. "His mental gifts [were revealed] in the shape of his head, the high nobility of his brow, and the intellectual light in his eyes" but there "was something else in those smoky brown eyes, a something that clashed with the nobility of the brown, an indication of flaw in the crystal that promised so well". When he needs relaxation and solace, he picks up his beloved violin and produces "low, haunting sound of strange music played by a master hand". When he is at work, seated in a specially designed chair at a table in which he plays with a strange chess-like board and little gargoyle chess pieces, he reveals that he has "one of the greatest mathematical brains in the world" as he plots the movements of both his underlings and the opposition. There can be no doubt that Pless is a genius at being a spymaster; there can be no doubt that Pless is quite egotistical about his genius.
Which brings us to Richard Sheridan; described as a tall young man, earnest in his assignments but with a calm exterior and a ready smile. He is chosen for the assignment that will eventually put him up against Spies Ltd. and Dario Pless because the previous agent investigating this secretive organization was found floating in a river with a stab wound to the heart. The man who picked him and gave him his orders directly is Lord Milden, Chief of the Secret Service, and he has tremendous confidence in his youthful operative but even he is not aware at just how clever Sheridan can be.
And it is that cleverness that will prove such a nemesis to Dario Pless for while Pless will soon come to realize that someone extremely clever is playing the game against him, that person being Sheridan.