es. "I hope to visit your country before long;
but I shall not be occupied with hats. Again I congratulate you. You
were a bit careless, but your position justified that. As head of the
department at Scotland Yard given over to the hunt for spies, precaution
doubtless struck you as unnecessary. How unlucky for poor Fraser-Freer
that it was to you he went to arrange for your own arrest! I got that
information from a clerk at the Cecil. You were quite right, from your
point of view, to kill him. And, as I say, you could afford to be rather
reckless. You had arranged that when the news of his murder came to
Scotland Yard you yourself would be on hand to conduct the search for
the guilty man. A happy situation, was it not?"

"It seemed so at the time," admitted Bray; and at last I thought I
detected a note of bitterness in his voice.

"I'm very sorry--really," said Hughes. "To-day, or to-morrow at the
latest, England will enter the war. You know what that means, Von der
Herts. The Tower of London--and a firing squad!"

Deliberately he walked away from the inspector, and stood facing the
window. Von der Herts was fingering idly that Indian knife which lay on
his desk. With a quick hunted look about the room, he raised his hand;
and before I could leap forward to stop him he had plunged the knife
into his heart.

Colonel Hughes turned round at my cry, but even at what met his eyes now
that Englishman was imperturbable.

"Too bad!" he said. "Really too bad! The man had courage and, beyond
all doubt, brains. But--this is most considerate of him. He has saved me
such a lot of trouble."

The colonel effected my release at once; and he and I walked down
Whitehall together in the bright sun that seemed so good to me after the
bleak walls of the Yard. Again he apologized for turning suspicion my
way the previous day; but I assured him I held no grudge for that.

"One or two things I do not understand," I said. "That letter I brought
from Interlaken--"

"Simple enough," he replied. "Enwright--who, by the way, is now in the
Tower--wanted to communicate with Fraser-Freer, who he supposed was a
loyal member of the band. Letters sent by post seemed dangerous. With
your kind assistance he informed the captain of his whereabouts and the
date of his imminent arrival in London. Fraser-Freer, not wanting you
entangled in his plans, eliminated you by denying the existence of this
cousin--the truth, of course."

"Why," I asked, "did