Major Felstead fifty-six hours ago. You cannot mean us to believe that
fifty-six hours ago you were at Wittenberg."

"That is precisely what I have been trying to tell you," he agreed.

"But it isn't possible!" Helen gasped.

"Quite, I assure you," he continued; "in fact, we should have been
here before but for a little uncertainty as to your armaments along the
coast. There was a gun, we were told, somewhere near here, which we were
credibly informed had once been fired without the slightest accident."

Philippa's eyes seemed to grow larger and rounder.

"He's raving!" she decided.

"He isn't!" Helen cried, with sudden divination. "Is that your hat?" she
asked, pointing to the table where Nora had left her trophy.

"It is," he admitted with a smile, "but I do not think that I will claim
it."

"You were in the observation car of that Zeppelin!"

Lessingham extended his hand.

"Softly, please," he begged. "You have, I gather, arrived at the
truth, but for the moment shall it be our secret? I made an exceedingly
uncomfortable, not to say undignified descent from the Zeppelin which
passed over Dutchman's Common last night."

"Then," Philippa cried, "you are a German!"

"My dear lady, I have escaped that misfortune," Lessingham confessed.
"Do you think that none other than Germans ride in Zeppelins?"

CHAPTER IV

A new tenseness seemed to have crept into the situation. The
conversation, never without its emotional tendencies, at once changed
its character. Philippa, cold and reserved, with a threat lurking all
the time in her tone and manner, became its guiding spirit.

"We may enquire your name?" she asked.

"I am the Baron Maderstrom," was the prompt reply. "For the purpose of
my brief residence in this country, however, I fancy that the name of
Mr. Hamar Lessingham might provoke less comment."

"Maderstrom," Philippa repeated. "You were at Magdalen with my brother."

"For three terms," he assented.

"You have visited at Wood Norton. It was only an accident, then, that I
did not meet you."

"It is true," he answered, with a bow. "I received the most charming
hospitality there from your father and mother."

"Why, you are the friend," Helen exclaimed, suddenly seizing his hands,
"of whom Dick speaks in his letter!"

"It has been my great privilege to have been of service to Major
Felstead," was the grave admission. "He and I, during our college days,
were more than ordinarily intimate. I s