pped.

He opened the door of the first cab on the rank.

"Drive to J---- Street, Kennington," he directed the man.

In something of a mental stupor I entered and found myself seated
beside Smith. The cab made off towards Trafalgar Square, then swung
around into Whitehall.

"Look behind!" cried Smith, intense excitement expressed in his voice--
"look behind!"

I turned and peered through the little square window.

The cab which had stood second upon the rank was closely following us!

"We are tracked!" snapped my companion. "If further evidence were
necessary of the fact that our every movement is watched, here it is!"

I turned to him, momentarily at a loss for words; then--

"Was this the object of our journey?" I said. "Your reference to a
'rendezvous' was presumably addressed to a hypothetical spy?

"Partly," he replied. "I have a plan, as you will see in a moment."

I looked again from the window in the rear of the cab. We were now
passing between the House of Lords and the back of Westminster Abbey ...
and fifty yards behind us the pursuing cab was crossing from
Whitehall! A great excitement grew up within me, and a great curiosity
respecting the identity of our pursuer.

"What is the place for which we are bound, Smith?" I said rapidly.

"It is a house which I chanced to notice a few days ago, and I marked
it as useful for such a purpose as our present one. You will see what
I mean when we arrive."

On we went, following the course of the river, then turned over
Vauxhall Bridge and on down Vauxhall Bridge Road into a very dreary
neighborhood where gasometers formed the notable feature of the
landscape.

"That's the Oval just beyond," said Smith suddenly, "and--here we are."

In a narrow _cul de sac_ which apparently communicated with the
boundary of the famous cricket ground, the cabman pulled up. Smith
jumped out and paid the fare.

"Pull back to that court with the iron posts," he directed the man,
"and wait there for me." Then: "Come on, Petrie!" he snapped.

Side by side we entered the wooden gate of a small detached house, or
more properly cottage, and passed up the tiled path towards a sort of
side entrance which apparently gave access to the tiny garden. At this
moment I became aware of two things; the first, that the house was an
empty one, and the second, that some one--some one who had quitted the
second cab (which I had heard pull up at no great distance behind us)
was approaching