ice a little. "Bernadine has
undertaken to send a copy of their contents to Berlin by to-morrow
night's mail."

"How do you know that?"

The ambassador hesitated.

"We, too, have spies at work," he remarked grimly. "Bernadine wrote and
sent a messenger with the letter to Berlin. The man's body is drifting
down the Channel, but the letter is in my pocket."

"The letter from Bernadine?"

"Yes."

"What does he say?"

"Simply that a verbatim copy of the document in question will be
dispatched to Berlin to-morrow evening without fail," replied the
ambassador.

"There are no secrets between us," Peter declared, smoothly. "What is
the special importance of this document?"

De Lamborne shrugged his shoulders.

"Since you ask," he said, "I tell you. You know of the slight coolness
which there has been between our respective Governments? Our people have
felt that the policy of your Ministers in expending all their energies
and resources in the building of a great fleet, to the utter neglect of
your army, is a wholly one-sided arrangement, so far as we are
concerned. In the event of a simultaneous attack by Germany upon France
and England, you would be utterly powerless to render us any measure of
assistance. If Germany should attack England alone, it is the wish of
your Government that we should be pledged to occupy Alsace-Lorraine.
You, on the other hand, could do nothing for us if Germany's first move
were made against France."

Peter was deeply interested, although the matter was no new one to him.

"Go on," he directed. "I am waiting for you to tell me the specific
contents of this document."

"The English Government has asked us two questions; first, how many
complete army corps we consider she ought to place at our disposal in
this eventuality; and, secondly, at what point should we expect them to
be concentrated? The dispatch which I received to-night contains the
reply to these questions."

"Which Bernadine has promised to forward to Berlin to-morrow night,"
Peter remarked softly.

De Lamborne nodded.

"You perceive," he said, "the immense importance of the affair. The very
existence of that document is almost a _casus belli_."

"At what time did the dispatch arrive," Peter asked, "and what has been
its history since?"

"It arrived at six o'clock," the ambassador declared. "It went straight
into the inner pocket of my coat; it has not been out of my possession
for a single second. Even whilst I t