ese are the
originals which cold not safely be got out of the country."

"Then they are of no use."

"I should not go so far as to say that, Watson. They will at least
show our people what is known and what is not. I may say that a good
many of these papers have come through me, and I need not add are
thoroughly untrustworthy. It would brighten my declining years to see
a German cruiser navigating the Solent according to the mine-field
plans which I have furnished. But you, Watson"--he stopped his work
and took his old friend by the shoulders--"I've hardly seen you in the
light yet. How have the years used you? You look the same blithe boy
as ever."

"I feel twenty years younger, Holmes. I have seldom felt so happy as
when I got your wire asking me to meet you at Harwich with the car.
But you, Holmes--you have changed very little--save for that horrible
goatee."

"These are the sacrifices one makes for one's country, Watson," said
Holmes, pulling at his little tuft. "To-morrow it will be but a
dreadful memory. With my hair cut and a few other superficial changes
I shall no doubt reappear at Claridge's to-morrow as I was before this
American stunt--I beg your pardon, Watson, my well of English seems to
be permanently defiled--before this American job came my way."

"But you have retired, Holmes. We heard of you as living the life of a
hermit among your bees and your books in a small farm upon the South
Downs."

"Exactly, Watson. Here is the fruit of my leisured ease, the magnum
opus of my latter years!" He picked up the volume from the table and
read out the whole title, Practical Handbook of Bee Culture, with Some
Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen. "Alone I did it.
Behold the fruit of pensive nights and laborious days when I watched
the little working gangs as once I watched the criminal world of
London."

"But how did you get to work again?"

"Ah, I have often marvelled at it myself. The Foreign Minister alone I
could have withstood, but when the Premier also deigned to visit my
humble roof--! The fact is, Watson, that this gentleman upon the sofa
was a bit too good for our people. He was in a class by himself.
Things were going wrong, and no one could understand why they were
going wrong. Agents were suspected or even caught, but there was
evidence of some strong and secret central force. It was absolutely
necessary to expose it. Strong pressure was brought upon me to look
i