ed me. We met, you know, in Belgium. It was
just when I was coming out of the German lines. Somehow or other he must
have been on my track ever since. I took no notice of it. I thought it
was simply because--because he was engaged to Geraldine Conyers."

"You are rivals in love, too, eh?" Sir Alfred remarked.

"Geraldine Conyers is the girl I want to marry," Granet admitted.

"Thomson," Sir Alfred murmured to himself,--"Surgeon-Major Hugh Thomson.
He seems to be the only man, Ronnie, from whom we have the least danger
to fear. Personally, I think I am secure. I do not believe that that
single letter will be ever deciphered, and if it is, three-parts of the
Cabinet are my friends. I could ruin the Stock Exchange to-morrow, bring
London's credit, for a time, at any rate, below the credit of Belgrade."

"All the same, it seems to me," Granet declared grimly, "that we should
both be more comfortable if there were no Surgeon-Major Thomson."

"The very last dispatches I had to deal with," Sir Alfred continued,
"made allusion to him. They don't love some of his work in Berlin, I can
tell you. What sort of a man is he, Ronnie? Can he be bought? A hundred
thousand pounds would be a fortune to a man like that."

"There is only one way of dealing with him," Granet said fiercely. "I
have tried it once. I expect I'll have to try again."

Sir Alfred leaned across the table.

"Don't be rash, Ronnie," he advised. "And yet, remember this. The man
is a real danger, both to you and to me. He is the only man who has had
anything to do with the Intelligence Department here, who is worth a
snap of the fingers. Now go home, Ronnie. You came here--well, never
mind what you were when you came here. You are going back an Englishman.
If they won't send you to the Front again, bother them for some work
here, and stick to it. You will get no reports nor any visitors. I have
strangled the whole system. You and I are cut loose from it. We are
free-lances. Mind, I still believe that in the end German progress and
German culture will dominate the world, but it may not be in our day. It
just happens that we have struck a little too soon. Let us make the best
of things, Ronnie. You have many years of life. I have some of unabated
power. Let us be thankful that we were wise enough to stop in time."

Granet rose to his feet. His uncle watched him curiously.

"You're young, of course, Ronnie," he continued indulgently. "You
haven't yet fitted your