y own type in a smoky
third-class carriage. I had been lucky in my escape, for at the station
entrance and on the platform I had noticed several men with the
unmistakable look of plainclothes police. Also--though this may have
been my fancy--I thought I caught in the crowd a glimpse of the bagman
who had called himself Linklater.

CHAPTER TEN

The Advantages of an Air Raid

The train was abominably late. It was due at eight-twenty-seven, but it
was nearly ten when we reached St Pancras. I had resolved to go
straight to my rooms in Westminster, buying on the way a cap and
waterproof to conceal my uniform should anyone be near my door on my
arrival. Then I would ring up Blenkiron and tell him all my adventures.
I breakfasted at a coffee-stall, left my pack and rifle in the
cloak-room, and walked out into the clear sunny morning.

I was feeling very pleased with myself. Looking back on my madcap
journey, I seemed to have had an amazing run of luck and to be entitled
to a little credit too. I told myself that persistence always pays and
that nobody is beaten till he is dead. All Blenkiron's instructions had
been faithfully carried out. I had found Ivery's post office. I had
laid the lines of our own special communications with the enemy, and so
far as I could see I had left no clue behind me. Ivery and Gresson took
me for a well-meaning nincompoop. It was true that I had aroused
profound suspicion in the breasts of the Scottish police. But that
mattered nothing, for Cornelius Brand, the suspect, would presently
disappear, and there was nothing against that rising soldier,
Brigadier-General Richard Hannay, who would soon be on his way to
France. After all this piece of service had not been so very
unpleasant. I laughed when I remembered my grim forebodings in
Gloucestershire. Bullivant had said it would be damnably risky in the
long run, but here was the end and I had never been in danger of
anything worse than making a fool of myself.

I remember that, as I made my way through Bloomsbury, I was not
thinking so much of my triumphant report to Blenkiron as of my speedy
return to the Front. Soon I would be with my beloved brigade again. I
had missed Messines and the first part of Third Ypres, but the battle
was still going on, and I had yet a chance. I might get a division, for
there had been talk of that before I left. I knew the Army Commander
thought a lot of me. But on the whole I hoped I would be left with the