y your own man, and make sure that he
is allowed to get through. If he does not himself cross, arrest him as
soon as his boat has gone. If he does go, watch for his return and
arrest him, and his boat and all on board, the moment that they
return. In any event the boat and its crew must be seized upon return
to Essex. Are you quite clear about what you have to do?"

"Quite," said Froissart. "The spies and their boat must be caught
red-handed, but not till after the false news of the mining of the
battle-cruisers has been carried to Holland. But how shall we make
certain that the sleepless English Navy will not butt in and catch the
boat at sea before it gets across to Holland. The Narrow Seas swarm
with fast patrols."

"I will provide for that. I will write at once for you a letter to the
Inspector of police at Burnham, and enclose copies of my credentials
from the Admiralty. I will also wire to Lord Jacquetot in private
code. You will find on arrival that the responsible naval authorities
of the district will be entirely at your service. That motor-boat with
the news of the great spoof shall be shepherded across most craftily,
but when it comes to return will find that the way of transgressors is
very hard. Get ready and be off, Froissart; we depend upon your skill
and discretion. Get a good view of your man--the police will point him
out--before he boards the train, and then don't let him out of your
sight. Take two plain-clothes officers with you. Run no unnecessary
risks of being spotted. You are rather easily recognisable with those
shining black eyes and black beard, but no one here has seen you
officially, and you should pass unsuspected as a Scotland Yard man.
Can I trust you?"

"_Mais certainement_," said Froissart crossly. "This is simple police
work, which I have done a thousand times. I could do it on my head."

"Your train leaves at 10.8; the South Western station. I will give you
the letters at once, and then you can start."

Within a quarter of an hour Dawson--his breakfast forgotten--had given
Froissart his letters, sent a long telegram by special messenger to
the Commander-in-Chief for despatch in code to Jacquetot. Not even to
Dawson would the Admiralty entrust its private cypher. Then, as soon
as Froissart had disappeared, he called up the Chief of the Dockyard
on the telephone and arranged to come at once to his office.

"I had given the easy job to Froissart," he explained to me long
afterwar