I'm
not going to blame you. You maybe heard a whistle blow when you were
coming in here? No! Why, it sounded like Gabriel's trump. Peter must
have put some lung power into it. Well, that was the signal that Miss
Mary was safe in your car ... but in our charge. D'you comprehend?'

He did. The ghost of a flush appeared in his cheeks.

'You ask about General Hannay? I'm not just exactly sure where Dick is
at the moment, but I opine he's in Italy.'

I kicked aside the screen, thereby causing Amos almost to fall on his
face.

'I'm back,' I said, and pulled up an arm-chair, and dropped into it.

I think the sight of me was the last straw for Ivery. I was a wild
enough figure, grey with weariness, soaked, dirty, with the clothes of
the porter Joseph Zimmer in rags from the sharp rocks of the
Schwarzsteinthor. As his eyes caught mine they wavered, and I saw
terror in them. He knew he was in the presence of a mortal enemy.

'Why, Dick,' said Blenkiron with a beaming face, 'this is mighty
opportune. How in creation did you get here?'

'I walked,' I said. I did not want to have to speak, for I was too
tired. I wanted to watch Ivery's face.

Blenkiron gathered up his Patience cards, slipped them into a little
leather case and put it in his pocket.

'I've one thing more to tell you. The Wild Birds have been summoned
home, but they won't ever make it. We've gathered them in--Pavia, and
Hofgaard, and Conradi. Ehrlich is dead. And you are going to join the
rest in our cage.'

As I looked at my friend, his figure seemed to gain in presence. He sat
square in his chair with a face like a hanging judge, and his eyes,
sleepy no more, held Ivery as in a vice. He had dropped, too, his drawl
and the idioms of his ordinary speech, and his voice came out hard and
massive like the clash of granite blocks.

'You're at the bar now, Graf von Schwabing. For years you've done your
best against the decencies of life. You have deserved well of your
country, I don't doubt it. But what has your country deserved of the
world? One day soon Germany has to do some heavy paying, and you are
the first instalment.'

'I appeal to the Swiss law. I stand on Swiss soil, and I demand that I
be surrendered to the Swiss authorities.' Ivery spoke with dry lips and
the sweat was on his brow.

'Oh, no, no,' said Blenkiron soothingly. 'The Swiss are a nice people,
and I would hate to add to the worries of a poor little neutral state
... All along both side