an manage for yourself.... Be circumspect!
The fellow is on the lookout!"

"He must leave with me to-night--it is urgent!" insisted Juve.... "You
must help me, Captain!"

Captain Loreuil frowned.

"I must confess I don't like this sort of thing!" said he.

"But this affair is more serious even than you know," said Juve. "This
Vinson business does not stand alone: it is but a strand in a vast
network of mystery and wickedness of the most malignant kind."

Still the captain was reluctant. To take part in such a sinister
comedy; to make a poor wretch tipsy in order to deliver him to the
authorities for punishment, wounded the captain's self-respect. Juve
overcame his hesitations with the words:

"It is not merely a secret service matter, Monsieur: it is a question
of National Defence."

"I will help you, Monsieur," was the captain's answer to this, adding:

"Let us go up! Our man's patience must be giving out."

XXV

THE ARREST

The Dover Express, the Continental Mail, was moving out of Charing
Cross station.

Three travellers were seated in a first-class compartment. They were
smoking big cigars: their eyes were bright, their cheeks flushed; they
looked like big men who had dined well. These were Butler, Tommy and
Paul, leaving for Belgium: otherwise Juve, Loreuil and Vinson bound
for France! Copious libations of generous wines and strong liqueurs
had reduced Butler-Vinson to the condition of a maudlin puppet: Tommy
and Paul had made Butler most conveniently drunk.

The train rushed forward through station after station, brilliantly
lighted, then plunged into the obscurity of the country. A stupefying
warmth from the heating apparatus impelled slumber. Unfortunate
Butler-Vinson, lulled by the regular movement of the train, was soon
fast asleep.

Juve and Loreuil kept vigil. They were sitting side by side facing
their captive.

"Dover will be the difficulty," whispered Juve, who had drawn closer
to the captain.

"Yes, that is the crucial point," agreed Loreuil....

The express was entering the tunnels pierced in the precipitous
coastline of the Channel near Dover. There was a short stop at Dover
Town station before it drew up on the Pier. There the travellers would
embark. Of these there were two distant streams: those crossing to
Belgium: those bound for France. Butler-Vinson still slept soundly.
Juve was waiting till the last minute. Then he would awaken his
prisoner as he already consider