red to me to leave the footpath and make my way back to
the "Brand," as I might well have done, by a more circuitous route. I
kept on the footpath, and just as I reached the little iron gate which
led into the spinney, I felt a man's arm suddenly flung around my neck,
and with a jerk I was thrown almost off my feet.

"He is here, madame," I heard a low voice say. "Take the papers from
him. I have him safe."

I think that my desperate humour lent me more than my usual strength.
With a fierce effort I wrenched myself free. Almost immediately I heard
the click of a revolver. "If you move," a low voice said, "I fire!"
"What do you want?" I asked. "The papers." I laughed bitterly. "Are
they worth my life?" I asked. "The life of a dozen such as you," the
man answered. "Quick! Hand them over."

Then I heard a little cry from the woman who had been standing a few
feet off. In the struggle I had lost my cap, and a faint watery moon,
half hidden by a ragged bank of black clouds, was shining weakly down
upon us.

"Guy," she cried, and her voice was shaking as though with terror.
"Guy, is that you?"

I lost my self-control. I forgot her sex, I forgot everything except
that she was responsible for this unspeakable corruption. I said
terrible things to her. And she listened, white--calm--speechless.
When I had finished she signed to the man to leave us. He hesitated,
but with a more peremptory gesture she dismissed him.

"Guy," she said, "you have not spared me. Perhaps I do not deserve it.
Now listen. The whole thing is at an end. Those few papers are all we
want. Your father is already in France. I am leaving at once. Give me
those papers and you will be rid of us for ever. If you do not I must
stay on until I have received copies of a portion of them, at any rate.
You know very well now that I can do this. Give me those that you have.
It will be safer--in every way."

"Give them to you?" I answered scornfully. "Are you serious?"

"Very serious, Guy. Do you not see that the sooner it is all over--the
better--the safer--up there?"

She pointed towards the house. I could have struck the white fingers
with their loathsome meaning.

"I shall take this packet to Lord Chelsford," I said. "I am down here
as a spy--a spy upon spies. He is up at the house now, and to-morrow
this packet will be in his hands. I shall tell him how I secured it. I
think that after that you will not have many opportunities for plying
your cursed tra