u at once," he announced.

Thomson followed his guide into a small back room. An officer was seated
before a desk, writing, another was shouting down a telephone, and a
third was making some measurements upon a large Ordnance map nailed upon
one of the walls. The General was standing with his back to the fire and
a pipe in his mouth. He nodded cheerily to Thomson.

"When did you leave London?" he asked.

"Nine o'clock last evening, sir," Thomson replied. "Rather a record
trip. We had a special down and a destroyer over."

"And I'm going to tell you what you want to know," the General continued
glancing at a document in his hand. "Well, close the door, Harewood. Out
with it?"

"It's about Captain Granet of Harrison's staff," Thomson began.

The General frowned and knocked the ashes from his pipe.

"Well," he asked, "what is it?"

"We've reasons of our own for wishing to know exactly what you meant by
asking the War Office not to send him back again," Thomson continued.

The General hesitated.

"Well, what are they?"

"They are a little intangible, sir," Thomson confessed, "but exceedingly
important. Without any direct evidence, I have come to the conclusion
that Captain Granet is a mysterious person and needs watching. As usual,
we are in trouble with the civil authorities, and, to be frank with you,
I am trying to strengthen my case."

The General shrugged his shoulders.

"Very well," he decided, "under the circumstances you have the right to
know what my message meant. We sent Granet back because of a suspicion
which may be altogether unjustifiable. The suspicion was there, however,
and it was sufficiently strong for me to make up my mind that I should
prefer not to have him back again. Now you shall know the facts very
briefly. Granet was taken prisoner twice. No one saw him taken--as
a matter of fact, both of the affairs were night attacks. He
seemed suddenly to disappear--got too far ahead of his men, was his
explanation. All I can say is that he was luckier than most of them.
Anything wandering about loose in a British uniform--but there, I won't
go on with that. He came back each time with information as to what
he had seen. Each time we planned an attack on the strength of that
information. Each time that information proved to be misleading and our
attack failed, costing us heavy losses. Of course, dispositions might
have been changed since his observations were made, but there the fact
remains. F