a disclosure. The
excitement, however, was too much for him and he fainted. He was at once
removed, under your auspices, and died a few days later, at one of your
uncle's country houses, before he could make any statement."

"This is ridiculous!" Granet exclaimed. "I never saw the fellow before
in my life."

"Ridiculous, doubtless, but a coincidence," Major Thomson replied,
turning over the next page of his book. "A little later I find you
taking an immense interest in our new destroyers, trying, in fact, to
induce young Conyers to explain our wire netting system, following him
down to Portsmouth and doing your best to discover also the meaning of a
new device attached to his destroyer."

"That is simply absurd," Granet protested. "I was interested in
the subject, as any military officer would be in an important naval
development. My journey to Portsmouth was simply an act of courtesy to
Miss Conyers and her cousin."

"I find you next," Thomson went on immovably, "visiting the one French
statesmen whom we in England had cause to fear, in his hotel in London.
I find that very soon afterwards that statesman is in possession of an
autograph letter from the Kaiser, offering peace to the French people on
extraordinary terms. Who was the intermediary who brought that document,
Captain Granet?"

Granet's face never twitched. He held himself with cold composure.

"These," he declared, "are fairy tales. Pailleton was a friend of mine.
During my visit we did not speak of politics."

"More coincidences," Major Thomson remarked. "We pass on, then, to that
night at Market Burnham Hall, when a Zeppelin was guided to the spot
where Sir Meyville Worth was experimenting on behalf of the British
Government, and dropped destructive bombs. A man was shot dead by the
side of the flare. That man was one of your companions at the Dormy
House Club."

"I neither spoke to him nor saw him there, except as a casual visitor,"
Granet insisted.

"That I venture to doubt," Major Thomson replied. "At any rate, there
is enough circumstantial evidence against you in this book to warrant
my taking the keenest interest in your future. As a matter of fact, you
would have been at the Tower, or underneath it, at this very moment, but
for the young lady who probably perjured herself to save you. Now that
you know my opinion of you, Captain Granet, you will understand that
I should hesitate before recommending you to any post whatever in the
servic