s to them. Only you and I are in
the secret at present. Positively I did not feel that I cared to extend
that knowledge to a single other person."

"But you might have told Colonel Ray and the Duke separately," I
remarked. "The Duke has never been my friend, and Ray has other causes
for being angry with me just at present; but between them they rescued
me from something like starvation, and it is terrible for them to think
of me as they are doing now."

Lord Chelsford poured himself out a glass of wine, and held it up to the
light for a moment.

"Mr. Ducaine," he said, "a secret is a very subtle thing. Though the
people who handle it are men of the most unblemished honour and
reputation, still the fewer they are, the safer the life of that
secret."

"But the Duke and Colonel Ray!" I protested.

"I might remind you," Lord Chelsford said, smiling, "that those are
precisely the two persons who shared with you the knowledge of the word
which opened the safe."

I laughed.

"I presume that you do not suspect either of them?" I remarked.

"The absurdity is obvious," Lord Cheisford answered. "But the force of
my former remark remains. I like that secret better when it rests
between you and me. It means, I know, that for a time--I promise you
that it shall be only for a time--you must lose your friends, but the
cause is great enough, and it should be within our power to reward you
later on."

"Oh, I am willing enough," I answered. "But may I ask what you are
going to do with me?"

Lord Chelsford smoked in silence for several moments.

"Mr. Ducaine," he said, "who is there in the household of the Duke who
opens that safe and copies those papers? Who is the traitor?"

"God only knows!" I answered. "It is a hopeless mystery."

"Yet we must solve it," Lord Chelsford said, "and quickly. If a single
batch of genuine maps and plans were tampered with, disparities would
certainly appear, and the thing might be suspected. Besides, upon the
face of it, the thing is terribly serious."

"You have a plan," I said.

"I have," Lord Chelsford answered calmly. "You remember Grooton?"

"Certainly! He was a servant at Braster."

"And the very faithful servant of his country also," Lord Chelsford
remarked. "You know, I believe, that he was a secret service man. He
is entirely safe, and I have sent for him. Now I imagine that the Duke
will wish our new secretary to live still at the 'Brand'--he preferred
it in your case, as yo