unfastened it with
a key from his chain and held his hand over the page. It was noticeable
that his right hand slipped open a few inches the right-hand drawer of
his desk.

"You have come to me, Captain Granet," he said, "to ask my aid in
getting you a job. Well, if I could give you one where I was perfectly
certain that you would be shot in your first skirmish, I would give
it to you, with pleasure. Under present conditions, however, it is my
impression that the further you are from any British fighting force, the
better it will be for the safety and welfare of that force."

Granet's face was suddenly rigid. He had turned a little paler and his
eyes flashed.

"What do you mean?" he demanded.

Thomson had removed his hand and was glancing at the open page.

"There are a few notes here about you," he said. "I will not read them
all but I will give you some extracts. There is your full name and
parentage, tracing out the amount of foreign blood which I find is in
your veins. There is a verbatim account of a report made to me by your
Brigadier-General, in which it seems that in the fighting under his
command you were three times apparently taken prisoner, three times you
apparently escaped; the information which you brought back led to at
least two disasters; the information which exactly at the time you were
absent seemed to come miraculously into the hands of the enemy, resulted
in even greater trouble for us."

"Do you insinuate, then, that I am a traitor?" Granet asked fiercely.

"I insinuate nothing," Thomson replied quietly. "So far as you and I are
concerned, we may as well, I presume, understand one another. You are,
without doubt, aware that my post as inspector of hospitals is a blind.
I am, as a matter of fact, chief of the Intelligence Department, with a
rank which at present I do not choose to use. I have been myself to
your Brigadier-General and brought home this report, and if it is any
satisfaction to you to know it, I brought also an urgent request that
you should not be allowed to rejoin any part of the force under his
control."

"It was simply rotten luck," Granet muttered.

"I come here to a few more notes," Thomson proceeded. "I meet you some
weeks ago at a luncheon party at the Ritz. A Belgian waiter, who I
learned, by later inquiries was present as a prisoner in the village
where you were being entertained as a guest at the German headquarters,
recognised you and was on the point of making