w.

So all that day I was compelled to hang about Milan, drinking vermouth
and bitter at Biffi's cafe in the Galleria, and dining alone at
Salvini's. I always hate Milan, for it is the noisiest and most
uninteresting city in all Italy.

Next afternoon I met Ford at the station and compelled him to scramble
into the Bale express with me, directly after he had alighted.

"I go to Berlin. You come with me, and go on to St. Petersburg," I said
in reply to his questions.

He was a middle-aged man, a retired army officer and a perfect linguist,
who was a secret agent of the British Government and a great friend of
Ray's.

All the way on that long, tedious run to Berlin we discussed the
situation. I was the first to explain to him our imminent peril, and
with what craft and cunning the German Chancellor had formed his plans
for the defeat and downfall of our Empire.

As soon as he knew, all trace of fatigue vanished from him. He went
along the corridor, washed, put on a fresh collar, brushed his well-worn
suit of navy serge, and returned spruce and smart, ready for any
adventure.

I told him nothing of Suzette. Her existence I had resolved to keep to
myself. In going to Berlin I knew well that I was playing both a
dangerous and desperate game. Pierron hated me, and if he detected me,
he might very easily denounce me to the police as a spy. Such a
_contretemps_ would, I reflected, mean for me ten years' confinement in
a fortress. The German authorities would certainly not forget how for
the past two years I had hunted their agents up and down Great Britain,
and been the means of deporting several as undesirable aliens.

Nevertheless, I felt, somehow, that my place was near Suzette, so that I
could prompt her, and if she were successful I could read with my own
eyes the copies of the diplomatic correspondence from the German Foreign
Office.

On arrival at Berlin I bade Ford farewell, having given him certain
instructions how to act on arrival in Petersburg. During our journey we
had made up a special telegraph code, and when I grasped his hand he
said:

"Well, good luck, Jacox. Be careful. _Au revoir!_"

And he hurried along the platform to catch the Nord Express to bear him
to the Russian capital.

At the "Kaiserhof" I took a sitting room and bed-room adjoining. It was
then about ten o'clock at night; therefore I sat down and wrote a note
to "Mdlle. Vera Yermoloff," which I gave a waiter to deliver.

Ten minut