ast. Last Tuesday a man with his
moustache brushed up the wrong way alighted at Basingstoke station and
enquired for the refreshment-room. This leads me to believe that a
dastardly attempt is about to be made to wrest the supremacy of the air
from our grasp!" Immediately I swooned.

"And even in the face of this the Government denies the activity of
German spies in England!" I exclaimed bitterly as soon as I had
recovered consciousness.

"Jacox," said my old friend, "as a patriot it is none the less my duty
to expose these miscreants. To-morrow we go to Basingstoke."

Next Thursday, then, saw us ensconced in our private sitting-room at the
Bull Hotel, Basingstoke. On our way from the station I had noticed how
ill-prepared the town was to resist invasion, and I had pointed this
out bitterly to my dear old friend, Ray Raymond.

"Yes," he remarked, grimly; "and it is simply infested with spies. Jack,
my surmises are proving correct. There will be dangerous work afoot
to-night. Have you brought your electric torch with you?"

"Since that Rosyth affair, I never travel without it," I replied, as I
stood with my back to the cheap mantel-shelf so common in English
hotels.

The night was dark, therefore we proceeded with caution as we left the
inn. The actions of Ray Raymond were curious. As we passed each
telegraph pole he stopped and said grimly, "Ah, I thought so"; and drew
his revolver. When we had covered fifteen miles we looked at our watches
by the aid of our electric torches and discovered that it was time to
get back to the hotel unless we wished our presence, or rather absence,
to be made known to the German spies; therefore we returned hastily.

Next morning Ray was recalled to town by an urgent telegram, therefore I
was left alone at Basingstoke to foil the dastardly spies. I stayed
there for thirteen weeks, and then went with my old friend to Grimsby,
he having received news that a German hairdresser, named Macdonald, was
resident in that town.

"My dear Jack," said my friend Ray Raymond, his face assuming the
sphinx-like expression by which I knew that he had formed some theory
for the destruction of his country's dastardly enemies, "to-night we
shall come to grips with the Teuton!"

"And yet," I cried, "the Government refuses to admit the activity of
German spies in England!"

"Ha!" said my friend grimly.

He opened a small black bag and produced a dark lantern, a coil of
strong silk rope, and a smal