adily until he found himself at length in a sort of
attic--quite windowless, and lit only by a skylight through which shone
the ineffectual light of the stars. It was the top at last. Bracing his
back against the wall, so that nobody could get behind him, and holding
himself ready for any emergency, he called out in a clear, calm voice:
"Cleek!"

Almost simultaneously there was a sharp metallic "snick," an electric
bulb hanging from the ceiling flamed out luminously, a cupboard door
flashed open, a voice cried out in joyous, perfect English: "Thank God
for a man!" And, switching round with a cry of amazement, he found
himself looking into the face and eyes of a woman.

And of all women in the world--Ailsa Lorne!

He sucked in his breath and his heart began to hammer.

"Miss Lorne!" he exclaimed, so carried out of himself that he scarcely
knew what he did. "It was the French position that you chose, then? It
is you--_you_--that calls upon me?"

"No, it is not," she made reply, a rush of colour reddening her cheeks,
a feeling of embarrassment and of a natural restraint making her shake
visibly. "I am merely the envoy of another. I should not know you,
disguised as you are, but for that. Yes, I chose the French position, as
you see, Mr. Cleek. I am now the companion to Mademoiselle Athalie,
daughter of the Baron de Carjorac."

"Baron de Carjorac? Do you mean the French Minister of the Interior, the
President of the Board of National Defences, Miss Lorne--that
enthusiastic old patriot, that rabid old spitfire, whose one dream is
the wresting back of Alsace-Lorraine, the driving of the hated Germans
into the sea? Do you mean that ripping old firebrand?"

"Yes. But you'd not call him that if you were to see him now; if you
could see the wreck, the broken and despairing wreck, that six weeks of
the Chateau Larouge, six weeks of that horrible 'Red Crawl' have made of
him."

"'The Red Crawl'! Good heavens! then that letter, that appeal for
help--"

"Came from him!" she finished excitedly. "It was he who was to have met
you here to-night, Mr. Cleek. This house is one he owns; he thought he
might with safety risk coming here, but--he can't! he can't! He knows
now that there is danger for him everywhere; that his every step is
tracked; that the snare which is about him has been about him,
unsuspected, for almost a year; that he dare not, absolutely dare not,
appeal to the French police, and that if it were known he had a