his," she said, "but
you see old Anna was my nurse, and I really do know her very well."

As she glanced from the one grave face to the other, her own shadowed.
"Is it very very serious?" she asked, with a catch in her clear voice.

"Yes, I'm afraid it is."

"Oh, James, do try and get leave for me to see her to-night--even for
only a moment."

She turned to the other man; somehow she felt that she had a better
chance there. "I have been in great trouble lately," she said, in a low
tone, "and but for Anna Bauer I don't know how I should have got through
it. That is why I feel I _must_ go to her now in her trouble."

"We'll see what can be done," said Mr. Reynolds kindly. "It may be
easier to arrange for you to see her to-night than it would be
to-morrow, after she has been charged."

* * * * *

When they reached the Market Place they saw that there were a good many
idlers still standing about near the steps leading up to the now closed
door of the Council House.

"You had better wait down here while I go and see about it," said James
Hayley quickly. He did not like the thought of Rose standing among the
sort of people who were lingering, like noisome flies round a honey-pot,
under the great portico.

And when he had left them standing together in the great space under the
stars, Rose turned to the stranger with whom she somehow felt in closer
sympathy than with her own cousin.

"What makes you think our old servant was a----" she broke off. She
could not bear to use the word "spy."

"I'll tell you," he said slowly, "what has convinced me. But keep this
for the present to yourself, Mrs. Blake, for I have said nothing of it
to Mr. Hayley. Quite at the beginning of the War, it was arranged that
all telegrams addressed to the Continent should be sent to the head
telegraph office in London for examination. Now within the first ten
days one hundred and four messages, sent, I should add, to a hundred and
four different addresses, were worded as follows----" He waited a
moment. "Are you following what I say, Mrs. Blake?"

"Yes," she said quickly. "I think I understand. You are telling me about
some telegrams--a great many telegrams----"

But she was asking herself how this complicated story could be connected
with Anna Bauer.

"Well, I repeat that a hundred and four telegrams were worded almost
exactly alike: 'Father can come back on about 14th. Boutet is expecting
him.'"

Rose