iling.

'I am happy to offer you hospitality at last,' it said.

I pulled my wits farther out of the mud to attend to him. The cross-bar
on my chest pressed less hard and I breathed better. But when I tried
to speak, the words would not come.

'We are old friends,' he went on. 'We have known each other quite
intimately for four years, which is a long time in war. I have been
interested in you, for you have a kind of crude intelligence, and you
have compelled me to take you seriously. If you were cleverer you would
appreciate the compliment. But you were fool enough to think you could
beat me, and for that you must be punished. Oh no, don't flatter
yourself you were ever dangerous. You were only troublesome and
presumptuous like a mosquito one flicks off one's sleeve.'

He was leaning against the side of a heavy closed door. He lit a cigar
from a little gold tinder box and regarded me with amused eyes.

'You will have time for reflection, so I propose to enlighten you a
little. You are an observer of little things. So? Did you ever see a
cat with a mouse? The mouse runs about and hides and manoeuvres and
thinks it is playing its own game. But at any moment the cat can
stretch out its paw and put an end to it. You are the mouse, my poor
General--for I believe you are one of those funny amateurs that the
English call Generals. At any moment during the last nine months I
could have put an end to you with a nod.'

My nausea had stopped and I could understand what he said, though I had
still no power to reply.

'Let me explain,' he went on. 'I watched with amusement your gambols at
Biggleswick. My eyes followed you when you went to the Clyde and in
your stupid twistings in Scotland. I gave you rope, because you were
futile, and I had graver things to attend to. I allowed you to amuse
yourself at your British Front with childish investigations and to play
the fool in Paris. I have followed every step of your course in
Switzerland, and I have helped your idiotic Yankee friend to plot
against myself. While you thought you were drawing your net around me,
I was drawing mine around you. I assure you, it has been a charming
relaxation from serious business.'

I knew the man was lying. Some part was true, for he had clearly fooled
Blenkiron; but I remembered the hurried flight from Biggleswick and
Eaucourt Sainte-Anne when the game was certainly against him. He had me
at his mercy, and was wreaking his vanity on me. That ma