he squares of tissue paper out on the bar.

"Do you read Flemish?" she whispered.

"No, ma'am----"

"Then I will translate into French for you. And first of all I must tell
you how I came to possess these little letters written upon tissue. Please
listen attentively."

He rested his palm on the butt of his dangling automatic.

"Go on," he said.

She told him the circumstances.

As she commenced to translate the tissue paper messages in a low,
tremulous voice, the sound of a door being closed and locked in the room
overhead silenced her.

The next instant she had stepped out to the stairs and called:

"Karl!"

There was no reply. Smith came out to the stair-well and listened.

"It is his custom," she whispered, "to lock his door before retiring. That
is what we heard."

"Call again."

"He can't hear me. He is in bed."

"Call, all the same."

"Karl!" she cried out in an unsteady voice.

CHAPTER XXIII

MADAM DEATH

There was no reply, because the young man was hanging out over his window
sill in the darkness trying to switch away, from her closed window below,
the big, clattering Death's Head moth which obstinately and persistently
fluttered there.

What possessed the moth to continue battering its wings at the window of
the room below? Had the other moths which he released done so, too? They
had darted out of his room into the night, each garnished with a tissue
robe. He supposed they had flown north; he had not looked out to see.

What had gone wrong with this moth, then?

He took his emaciated blond head between his bony fingers and pondered,
probing for reason with German thoroughness--that celebrated thoroughness
which is invariably riddled with flaws.

Of all contingencies he had thought--or so it seemed to him. He could not
recollect any precaution neglected. He had come to Sainte Lesse for a
clearly defined object and to make certain reports concerning matters of
interest to the German military authorities north of Nivelle.

The idea, inspired by the experiments of Henri Fabre, was original with
him. Patiently, during the previous year, he had worked it out--had proved
his theory by a series of experiments with moths of this species.

He had arranged with his staff comrade, Dr. Glueck, for a forced hatching
of the pupae which the latter had patiently bred from the enormous green
and violet-banded caterpillars.

At least one female Death's Head must be ready, caged in the t