urther," the General continued, filling his pipe slowly and
pressing in the tobacco, "on the second occasion we had four hundred men
thrown forward into the village of Ossray. They were moved in the pitch
darkness, and silently. It was impossible for any word of their presence
in Ossray to have been known to the Germans. Yet the night of Granet's
capture the village was shelled, and those who escaped were cut off and
made prisoners. Follow me, Major?"

"Yes, sir!" Thomson acquiesced.

"Those are just the facts," the General concluded. "Now on the other
hand, Granet has handled his men well, shown great personal bravery, and
has all the appearance of a keen soldier. I hate to do him a wrong
even in my thoughts but there were others besides myself to whom these
coincidences seemed amazing. We simply decided that they'd better give
Granet a billet at home. That's the reason of my message."

"I am very much obliged to you, sir," Thomson said slowly. "You have
given me exactly the information which we desire."

The General was called away for a moment to give some instructions to
the young officer who was sitting in a distant corner of the room with
a telephone band around his head. He signed to Thomson, however, to
remain.

"Now that I have gratified your curiosity," he said, when he returned,
"perhaps you will gratify mine? Will you tell me just how you over in
England have come to have suspicions of this man?"

"That," Thomson explained, "is almost a personal matter with me. Three
months ago I spent the night with the Third Army Corps up by Niemen. I
was there on other business, as you may imagine, but there was some hot
fighting and I went out to help. I was attending to some of our fellows
and got very near to the German lines. I became separated from the
others a little and was groping about when I heard voices talking German
within a few feet of me. I couldn't hear what they said but I could just
distinguish two figures. One of them made off towards the German lines.
The other, after standing still for a moment, came in my direction. I
took out my revolver, and to tell you the truth I very nearly fired on
sight, for it would have been an exceedingly awkward matter for me
to have been taken prisoner just then. Just as my finger was on the
trigger, I became conscious that the man who was approaching was humming
'Tipperary.' I flashed my light on his face and saw at once that he was
a British officer. He addressed