hief's attention from the hundred urgent matters of national
security that occupied him?

The Chief seemed absorbed in his driving and Desmond felt it
would be useless to attempt to draw him out. They wended their
way through the city and out into the squalid length of the Mile
End Road. Then the Chief began to talk.

"I hate driving through the City," he exclaimed, "but I always
think it's good for the nerves. Still, I have a feeling that I
shall smash this old car up some day. That friend of yours,
Strangwise, now he's a remarkable man! Do you know his story?"

"About his escape from Germany?" asked Desmond.

The Chief nodded.

"He told me something about it at dinner last night," said
Desmond, "but he's such a modest chap he doesn't seem to like
talking about it!"

"He must have a cool nerve," replied the Chief, "he doesn't know
a word of German, except a few scraps he picked up in camp. Yet,
after he got free, he made his way alone from somewhere in
Hanover clear to the Dutch frontier. And I tell you he kept his
eyes and ears open!"

"Was he able to tell you anything good" asked Desmond.

"The man's just full of information. He couldn't take a note of
any kind, of course, but he seems to have a wonderful memory. He
was able to give us the names of almost every unit of troops he
came across."

He stopped to skirt a tram, then added suddenly:

"Do you know him well, Okewood?"

"Yes, I think I do," said Desmond. "I lived with him for about
three months in France, and we got on top-hole together. He's a
man absolutely without fear."

"Yes," agreed the Chief. "But what about his judgment? Would you
call him a well-balanced fellow? Or is he one of these
harum-scarum soldier of fortune sort of chaps?"

"I should say he was devilish shrewd," replied the other.
"Strangwise is a very able fellow and a fine soldier. The
Brigadier thought a lot of him. There's very little about
artillery work that Strangwise doesn't know. Our Brigadier's a
good judge, too... he was a gunner himself once, you know."

"I'm glad to hear you say that," answered the Chief, "because
there are some things he has told us, about the movements of
troops, particularly, that don't agree in the least with our own
Intelligence reports. I am an old enough hand at my job to know
that very often one man may be right where fifty independent
witnesses are dead wrong. Yet our reports from Germany have been
wonderfully accurate on the whole."