hart had been
laid, walked over to Dawson and shook him warmly by the hand. "You
won't get any credit for the idea," he whispered. "One never does. But
it was a damned good notion. What are you going to do now?"

"I am going to Plymouth this afternoon to make sure that the German
truth gets over the water to Holland, and that the English truth stays
safely behind. If you will all do your part, I will do mine."

CHAPTER XIII

THE SEEN AND THE UNSEEN

"Every man to his trade," said Dawson. "I didn't go into the
difficulties of our job to those high folks at the Admiralty, but they
are not at all small. You have a head on you, Froissart, though it has
the misfortune to be French; set it going on double shifts."

The two men were sitting in a specially reserved first-class
compartment in the Paddington-Plymouth express; as companions they
were hopelessly uncongenial, yet as colleagues formed a strong
combination in which the qualities of the one served to neutralise the
defects of the other. Dawson, in spite of his love for the Defence of
the Realm Regulations, was still sometimes unconsciously hampered by
an ingrained respect for the ordinary law and the rights of civilians;
Froissart, like all French detective officers, held the law in
contempt, and was by nature and training utterly lawless. The more
reputable a suspect, the more remorseless was his pursuit. They were,
professionally, a terrible pair who could have been passed through a
hair sieve without leaving behind a grain of moral scruple.

Froissart, when he would be at the trouble, understood and spoke
English quite well, though with me he used nothing but the raciest of
boulevard French. "My friend," said he, "your promise to those
Ministers of Marines was rash; for, unless there is the most perfect
execution of your scheme and the most sleepless watching of those whom
you call dockyard hands--_ceux qui travaillent dans les chantiers, ne
c'est pas_?--the sailing of these _grands croiseurs_ will be told to
Germany. There are too many who will know. We are upon _une folle
enterprise_--a chase of the wild goose."

"You do not know my system if you think that," remarked Dawson,
frowning.

"And if I do not, of whom is the fault?" inquired Froissart blandly;
"for, my faith, you never tell what you would be doing."

"A secret," said Dawson sententiously, "is a secret when known to one
only. If two know of it there is grave danger. If three, one might