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+Project Gutenberg's The Box with the Broken Seals, by E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Box with the Broken Seals
+
+Author: E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
+Posting Date: November 12, 2011 [EBook #9923]
+Release Date: February, 2006
+First Posted: October 31, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOX WITH THE BROKEN SEALS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jim Regan, Michael Lockey,
+and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BOX WITH BROKEN SEALS
+
+BY
+
+E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM
+
+1919
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+James Crawshay, Englishman of the type usually described in
+transatlantic circles as "some Britisher," lolled apparently at his
+ease upon the couch of the too-resplendent sitting room in the Hotel
+Magnificent, Chicago. Hobson, his American fellow traveler, on the
+other hand, betrayed his anxiety by his nervous pacing up and down the
+apartment. Both men bore traces in their appearance of the long
+journey which they had only just completed.
+
+"I think," Crawshay decided, yawning, "that I shall have a bath. I
+feel gritty, and my collar--heavens, what a sight! Your trains,
+Hobson, may be magnificent, but your coal is filthy. I will have a
+bath while your friend, the policeman, makes up his mind whether to
+come and see us or not."
+
+His companion treated the suggestion with scant courtesy.
+
+"You will do nothing of the sort," was his almost fierce objection.
+"We've got to wait right here until Chief of Police Downs comes along.
+There's something crooked about this business, something I don't
+understand, and the sooner we get to the bottom of it, the better."
+
+The Englishman pacified himself with a whisky and soda which a waiter
+had just brought in. He added several lumps of ice and drained the
+contents of the tumbler with a little murmur of appreciation.
+
+"It will be confoundedly annoying," he admitted quietly, "if we've had
+all this journey for nothing."
+
+Hobson moistened his dry lips with his tongue. The whisky and soda and
+the great bucket of ice stood temptingly at his elbow, but he appeared
+to ignore their existence. He was a man of ample build, with a big,
+clean-shaven face, a square jaw and deep-set eyes, a man devoted to
+and wholly engrossed by his work.
+
+"See here, Crawshay," he exclaimed, "if that dispatch was a fake, if
+we've been brought here on a fool's errand, they haven't done it for
+nothing. If they've brought it off against us, you mark my words,
+we're left--we're bamboozled--we're a couple of lost loons! There's
+nothing left for us but to sell candy to small boys or find a job on
+a farm."
+
+"You're such a pessimist," the Englishman yawned.
+
+"Pessimist!" was the angry retort. "I'll just ask you one question, my
+son. Where's Downs?"
+
+"I certainly think," Crawshay admitted, "that under the circumstances
+he might have been at the station to meet us."
+
+"He wouldn't even talk through the 'phone," Hobson pointed out. "I had
+to explain who we were to one of his inspectors. No one seemed to know
+a goldarned thing about us."
+
+"They sent for him right away when you explained who you were,"
+Crawshay reminded his companion.
+
+Hobson found no comfort whatever in the reflection.
+
+"Of course they did," he replied brusquely. "There's scarcely likely
+to be a chief of police of any city in the United States who wouldn't
+get a move on when he knew that Sam Hobson was waiting for a word. I
+haven't been in the Secret Service of this country for fifteen years
+for nothing. He'll come fast enough as soon as he knows I'm waiting,
+but all the same, what I want to know is, if that dispatch was on the
+square, why he wasn't at the station to meet us, and if it wasn't on
+the square, how the hell do we come out of this?"
+
+Their conversation was interrupted by the tinkle of the telephone
+which stood upon the table between them, the instrument which both men
+had been watching anxiously. Hobson snatched up the receiver.
+
+"Police headquarters speaking? Right! Yes, this is Sam Hobson. I'm
+here with Crawshay, of the English Secret Service. We got your
+dispatch.--What's that?--Well?--Chief Downs is on the way, eh?--Just
+started? Good! We're waiting for him."
+
+Hobson replaced the receiver upon the instrument.
+
+"Downs is coming right along," he announced. "I tell you what it is,
+Mr. Crawshay," he went on, recommencing his walk up and down the
+apartment, "I don't feel happy to be so far away from the coast.
+That's what scares me. Chicago's just about the place they'd land us,
+if this is a hanky-panky trick. We're twenty hours from New York, and
+the _City of Boston_ sails to-morrow at five o'clock."
+
+The Englishman shook himself and rose from his recumbent position upon
+the sofa. He was a man of youthful middle-age, colourless, with
+pleasant face, a somewhat discontented mouth, but keen grey eyes. He
+had been sent out from Scotland Yard at the beginning of the war to
+assist in certain work at the English Embassy. So far his
+opportunities had not been many, or marked with any brilliant success,
+and it seemed to him that the gloom of failure was already settling
+down upon their present expedition.
+
+"You don't believe, then, any more than I do, that when a certain box
+we know of is opened at the Foreign Office in London, it will contain
+the papers we are after?"
+
+"No, sir, I do not," was the vigorous reply. "I think they have been
+playing a huge game of bluff on us. That's why I am so worried about
+this trip. I wouldn't mind betting you the best dinner you ever ate at
+Delmonico's or at your English Savoy that that box with the broken
+seals they all got so excited about doesn't contain a single one of
+the papers that we're after. Why, those blasted Teutons wanted us to
+believe it! That's why some of the seals were broken, and why the old
+man himself hung about like a hen that's lost one of its chickens.
+They want us to believe that we've got the goods right in that box,
+and to hold up the search for a time while they get the genuine stuff
+out of the country. I admit right here, Mr. Crawshay, that it was you
+who put this into my head at Halifax. I couldn't swallow it then, but
+when Downs didn't meet us at the depot here, it came over me like a
+flash that you were right that we were being flimflammed."
+
+"We ought, perhaps, to have separated," the Englishman ruminated. "I
+ought to have gone to New York and you come here. On the other hand,
+you must remember that all the evidence which we have managed to
+collect points to Chicago as having been the headquarters of the whole
+organisation."
+
+"Sure!" the American admitted. "And there's another point about it,
+too. If this outsider who has taken on the job for them should really
+turn out to be Jocelyn Thew, I'd have banked on his working the scheme
+from Chicago. He knows the back ways of the city, or rather he used
+to, like a rat. Gee, it would be a queer thing if after all these
+years one were to get the bracelets on him!"
+
+"I don't quite see," Crawshay remarked, "how such a person as this
+Jocelyn Thew, of whom you have spoken several times, could have become
+associated with an affair of this sort. Both the Germans and the
+Austrians at Washington had the name of being exceedingly particular
+with regard to the status of their agents, and he must be entirely a
+newcomer in international matters. From the _dossier_ you handed me,
+Jocelyn Thew reads more like a kind of modern swashbuckler spoiling
+for a fight than a person likely to make a success of a secret
+service job."
+
+"Don't you worry," Hobson replied. "Jocelyn Thew could hold his own at
+any court in Europe with any of you embassy swaggerers. There's
+nothing known about his family, but they say that his father was an
+English aristocrat, and he looks like it, too."
+
+"It was you yourself who called him a criminal, the first time you
+spoke of him," Crawshay reminded his companion.
+
+"And a criminal he is at heart, without a doubt," the American
+declared impressively.
+
+"Has he ever been in prison?"
+
+"He has had the luck of Old Harry," Hobson grumbled. "In New York they
+all believed that it was he who shot Graves, the Pittsburg
+millionaire. The Treasury Department will have it that he was the head
+of that Fourteenth Street gang of coiners, and I've a pal down at
+Baltimore who is ready to take his oath that he planned the theft of
+the Vanderloon jewels--and brought it off, too! But I tell you this,
+sir. When the trouble comes, whoever gets nabbed it's never Jocelyn
+Thew. He's the slickest thing that ever came down the pike."
+
+"He is well off, then?"
+
+"They say that he brought half a million from Mexico," Hobson
+declared. "How he brought money out of that country, neither I nor
+anybody else on the Force can imagine. But he did it. I know the
+stockbroker down-town who handles his investments.--Here's our man
+at last!"
+
+The door was opened by the floor waiter, who held it while a thin,
+dark man, dressed in civilian clothes of most correct cut, passed in.
+Hobson gripped him at once by the hand.
+
+"Chief Downs," he said, "this is my friend Mr. Crawshay, who is
+connected with the English Embassy over here. You can shake hands with
+him later. We're on a job of business, and the first thing before us
+is to get an answer from you to a certain question. Did you send this
+dispatch or did you not?"
+
+Hobson handed over to the newcomer the crumpled telegraph form which
+he had just produced from his pocket. The latter glanced through it
+and shook his head.
+
+"It's a plant," he announced. "I'm sorry if the use of my name has
+misled you in any way, but it was quite unauthorised. I know nothing
+whatever about the matter."
+
+Hobson remained for a moment silent, silent with sick and angry
+astonishment. Crawshay had glanced towards the clock and was standing
+now with his finger upon the bell.
+
+"Is it a big thing?" the Chicago man enquired.
+
+"It's the biggest thing ever known in this country," Hobson groaned.
+"It's what is known as the Number Three Berlin plant."
+
+"You didn't get the stuff at Halifax, then?" Downs asked.
+
+"We didn't," Hobson replied bitterly. "We've sent a representative
+over to sit on the box with the broken seals till they can open it at
+the Foreign Office in London, but I never believed they'd find
+anything there. I'm damned certain they won't now!"
+
+A waiter had answered the bell.
+
+"Don't have our luggage brought up," Crawshay directed. "We are
+leaving for New York to-night. That's so, isn't it, Hobson?" he added,
+turning to his companion.
+
+"You bet!" was the grim reply. "I'd give a thousand dollars to be
+there now."
+
+"The Limited's sold out," the man told them. "There are two or three
+persons who've been disappointed, staying on here till to-morrow."
+
+"I'll get you on the train," Downs promised. "I can do as much as that
+for you, anyway. I'll stop and go on to the station with you from
+here. I'm very sorry about this, Hobson," he continued, fingering the
+dispatch. "We shall have to get right along to the station, but if
+there's anything I can do after you've left, command me."
+
+"You might wire New York," Hobson suggested, as he struggled into his
+overcoat. "Tell 'em to look out for the _City of Boston_, and to hold
+her up for me if they can. I've got it in my bones that Jocelyn Thew
+is running this show and that he is on that steamer."
+
+"Those fellows at Washington must have collected some useful stuff,"
+Chief Downs observed, as the three men left the room and stepped into
+the elevator. "They've been working on their job since before the war,
+and there isn't a harbour on the east or west coast that they haven't
+got sized up. They've spent a million dollars in graft since January,
+and there's a rumour that the new Navy Department scheme for dealing
+with submarines, which was only adopted last month, is there among
+the rest."
+
+"Anything else?" Crawshay asked indolently.
+
+The Chief of Police glanced first at his questioner and then at
+Hobson.
+
+"What else should there be?" he enquired.
+
+"No idea," the Englishman replied. "Secret Service papers of the usual
+description, I suppose. By-the-by, I hear that this man Jocelyn Thew
+has stated openly that he is going to take all the papers he wants
+with him into Germany, and that there isn't a living soul can
+stop him."
+
+Hobson's square jaw was set a little tighter, and his narrow eyes
+flashed.
+
+"That's some boast to make," he muttered. "Kind of a challenge, isn't
+it? What do you say, Mr. Crawshay?"
+
+Crawshay, who had been gazing out of the window of the taxicab, looked
+back again. His tone was almost indifferent.
+
+"If Chief Downs can get us on the Limited," he said, "and if we catch
+the _City of Boston_, I think perhaps we might have a chance of making
+Mr. Jocelyn Thew eat his words."
+
+The Chief smiled. The taxicab had turned in through the entrance gates
+of the great station.
+
+"I have heard men as well-known in their profession as you, Hobson,
+and you too, Mr. Crawshay, speak like that about Jocelyn Thew, but
+when the game was played out they seem to have lost the odd trick.
+Either the fellow isn't a criminal at all but loves to haunt shady
+places and pose as one, or he is just the cleverest of all the crooks
+who ever worked the States. Some of my best men have thought that they
+had a case against him and have come to grief."
+
+"They've never caught him with the goods, because they've never been
+the right way about it," Hobson declared confidently.
+
+"And you think you are going to break his record?" Downs asked, with a
+doubtful smile. "If you find him on the _City of Boston_, you know,
+the stuff you're after won't be in his pocketbook or in the lining of
+his steamer trunk."
+
+The three men were hurrying out to the platform now, where the great
+train, a blaze of light and luxury, was standing upon the track.
+Captain Downs made his way to where the Pullman conductor was standing
+and engaged him in a brief but earnest conversation. A car porter was
+summoned, and in a few moments Crawshay and Hobson found themselves
+standing on the steps of one of the cars. They leaned over to make
+their adieux to Chief Downs. Crawshay added a few words to
+his farewell.
+
+"I quite appreciate all your remarks about Jocelyn Thew," he said.
+"One is liable to be disappointed, of course, but I still feel that if
+we can catch that steamer it might be an exceedingly interesting voyage."
+
+"If you're on time you may do it," was the brief reply. "All the
+same--"
+
+The gong had sounded and the train was gliding slowly out of the
+station. Crawshay leaned over the iron gate of the car.
+
+"Go on, please," he begged. "Don't mind my feelings."
+
+Chief Downs waved his hand.
+
+"I'm afraid," he confessed, "that my money would be on Jocelyn Thew."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+At just about the hour when Crawshay and Hobson were receiving the
+visit of Chief Downs in the Chicago hotel an English butler accepted
+with due respect the card of a very distinguished-looking and
+exceedingly well-turned-out caller at the big, brownstone Beverley
+house in Riverside Drive, New York.
+
+"Miss Beverley is just back from the hospital, sir," the former
+announced. "If you will come this way, I will see that your card is
+sent to her at once."
+
+The caller--Mr. Jocelyn Thew was the name upon the card--followed the
+servant across the white stone circular hall, with its banked-up
+profusion of hothouse flowers and its air of elegant emptiness, into a
+somewhat austere but very dignified apartment, the walls of which were
+lined to the ceiling with books.
+
+"I will let Miss Beverley have your card at once, sir," the man
+promised him again, "if you will be so kind as to take a seat for a
+few moments."
+
+The visitor, left to himself, stood upon the hearthrug with his hands
+behind his back, waiting for news of the young lady whom he had come
+to visit. At first sight he certainly was a most prepossessing-looking
+person. His face, if a little hard, was distinguished by a strength
+which for the size of his features was somewhat surprising. His chin
+was like a piece of iron, and although his mouth had more sensitive
+and softer lines, his dark-blue eyes and jet-black eyebrows completed
+a general impression of vigour and forcefulness. His figure was a
+little thin but lithe, and his movements showed all the suppleness of
+a man who has continued the pursuit of athletics into early
+middle-life. His hair, only slightly streaked with grey, was thick and
+plentiful. His clothes were carefully chosen and well tailored. He had
+the air of a man used to mixing with the best people, to eating and
+drinking the best, to living in the best fashion, recognising nothing
+less as his due in life. Yet as he stood there waiting for his
+visitor, listening intently for the sound of her footsteps outside, he
+permitted himself a moment of retrospection, and there was a gleam of
+very different things in his face, a touch almost of the savage in the
+clenched teeth and sudden tightening of the lips. One might have
+gathered that this man was living through a period of strain.
+
+The entrance of the young lady of the house, after a delay of about
+ten minutes, was noiseless and unannounced. Her visitor, however, was
+prepared for it. She came towards him with an air of pleasant enquiry
+in her very charming face--a young woman in the early twenties, of
+little more than medium height, with complexion inclined to be pale,
+deep grey eyes, and a profusion of dark brown, almost copper-coloured
+hair. She carried herself delightfully and her little smile of welcome
+was wonderfully attractive, although her deportment and manner were a
+little serious for her years.
+
+"You wish to see me?" she asked. "I am Miss Beverley--Miss Katharine
+Beverley." "Sometimes known as Sister Katharine," her visitor
+remarked, with a smile.
+
+"More often than by my own name," she assented. "Do you come from the
+hospital?"
+
+He shook his head and glanced behind her to be sure that the door was
+closed.
+
+"Please do not think that my coming means any trouble, Miss Beverley,"
+he said, "but if you look at me more closely you will perhaps
+recognise me. You will perhaps remember--a promise."
+
+He stepped a little forward from his position of obscurity to where
+the strong afternoon sunlight found its subdued way through the
+Holland blinds. The politely interrogative smile faded from her lips.
+She seemed to pass through a moment of terror, a moment during which
+her thoughts were numbed. She sank into the chair which her visitor
+gravely held out for her, and by degrees she recovered her powers
+of speech.
+
+"Forgive me," she begged. "The name upon the card should have warned
+me--but I had no idea--I was not expecting a visit from you."
+
+"Naturally," he acquiesced smoothly, "and I beg you not to discompose
+yourself. My visit bodes you no harm--neither you nor any one
+belonging to you."
+
+"I was foolish," she confessed. "I have been working overtime at the
+hospital lately--we have sent so many of our nurses to France. My
+nerves are not quite what they should be."
+
+He bowed sympathetically. His tone and demeanour were alike
+reassuring.
+
+"I quite understand," he said. "Still, some day or other I suppose
+you expected a visit from me?"
+
+"In a way I certainly did," she admitted. "You must let me know
+presently, please, exactly what I can do. Don't think because I was
+startled to see you that I wish to repudiate my debt. I have never
+ceased to be grateful to you for your wonderful behaviour on that
+ghastly night."
+
+"Please do not refer to it," he begged. "Your brother, I hope, is
+well?"
+
+"He is well and doing famously," she replied. "I suppose you know that
+he is in France?"
+
+"In France?" he repeated. "No, I had not heard."
+
+"He joined the Canadian Flying Corps," she went on, "and he got his
+wings almost at once. He finds the life out there wonderful. I never
+receive a letter from him," she concluded, her eyes growing very soft,
+"that I do not feel a little thrill of gratitude to you."
+
+He bowed.
+
+"That is very pleasant," he murmured. "And now we come to the object
+of my visit. Your surmise was correct. I have come to ask you to
+redeem your word."
+
+"And you find me not only ready but anxious to do so," she told him
+earnestly. "If it is a matter--pardon me--of money, you have only to
+say how much. If there is any other service you require, you have only
+to name it."
+
+"You make things easy for me," he acknowledged, "but may I add that it
+is only what I expected. The service which I have come to claim from
+you is one which is not capable of full explanation but which will
+cause you little inconvenience and less hardship. You will find it,
+without doubt, surprising, but I need not add that it will be entirely
+innocent in its character."
+
+"Then there seems to be very little left," she declared, smiling up at
+him from the depths of her chair, "but to name it. I do wish you would
+sit down, and are you quite sure that you won't have some tea or
+something?"
+
+He shook his head gravely and made no movement towards the chair which
+she had indicated. For some reason or other, notwithstanding her
+manifest encouragement, he seemed to wish to keep their interview on a
+purely formal basis.
+
+"Let me repeat," he continued, "that I shall offer you no
+comprehensive explanations, because they would not be truthful, nor
+are they altogether necessary. In Ward Number Fourteen of your
+hospital--you have been so splendid a patroness that every one calls
+St. Agnes's your hospital--a serious operation was performed to-day
+upon an Englishman named Phillips."
+
+"I remember hearing about it," she assented. "The man is, I
+understand, very ill."
+
+"He is so ill that he has but one wish left in life," Jocelyn Thew
+told her gravely. "That wish is to die in England. Just as you are at
+the present moment in my debt for a certain service rendered, so am I
+in his. He has called upon me to pay. He has begged me to make all the
+arrangements for his immediate transportation to his native country."
+She nodded sympathetically.
+
+"It is a very natural wish," she observed, "so long as it does not
+endanger his life."
+
+"It does not endanger his life," her visitor replied, "because that is
+already forfeit. I come now to the condition which involves you, which
+explains my presence here this afternoon. It is also his earnest
+desire that you should attend him so far as London as his nurse."
+
+The look of vague apprehension which had brought a questioning frown
+into Katharine Beverley's face faded away. It was succeeded by an
+expression of blank and complete surprise.
+
+"That I should nurse him--should cross with him to London?" she
+repeated. "Why, I do not know this man Phillips. I never saw him in my
+life! I have not even been in Ward Fourteen since he was
+brought there."
+
+"But he," Jocelyn Thew explained, "has seen you. He has been a visitor
+at your hospital before he was received there as a patient. He has
+received from various doctors wonderful accounts of your skill.
+Besides this, he is a superstitious man, and he has been very much
+impressed by the fact that you have never lost a patient. If you had
+been one of your own probationers, the question of a fee would have
+presented no difficulties, although he personally is, I believe, a
+poor man. As it is, however, his strange craving for your services has
+become a charge upon me."
+
+"It is the most extraordinary request I ever heard in my life,"
+Katharine murmured. "If I had ever seen or spoken to the man, I could
+have understood it better, but as it is, I find it impossible to
+understand."
+
+"You must look upon it," Jocelyn Thew told her, "as one of those
+strange fancies which comes sometimes to men who are living in the
+shadowland of approaching death. There is one material circumstance,
+however, which may make the suggestion even more disconcerting for
+you. The steamer upon which we hope to sail leaves at four o'clock
+to-morrow afternoon."
+
+The idea in this new aspect was so ludicrous that she simply laughed
+at him.
+
+"My dear Mr. Jocelyn Thew!" she exclaimed. "You can't possibly be in
+earnest! You mean that you expect me to leave New York with less than
+twenty-four hours' notice, and go all the way to London in attendance
+upon a stranger, especially in these awful times? Why, the thing isn't
+reasonable--or possible! I have just consented to take the
+chairmanship of a committee to form field hospitals throughout the
+country, and--"
+
+"May I interrupt for one moment?" her visitor begged.
+
+The stream of words seemed to fall away from her lips. There was a
+touch of Jocelyn Thew's other manner--perhaps more than a touch. She
+looked at him and she shivered. She had seen him look like that
+once before.
+
+"Your attitude is perfectly reasonable," he continued, "but on the
+other hand I must ask you to carry your thoughts back some little
+time. I shall beg you to remember that I have a certain right to ask
+this or any other service from you." "I admit it," she confessed
+hastily, "but--there is something so outlandish in the whole
+suggestion. There are a score of nurses in the hospital to any one of
+whom you are welcome, who are all much cleverer than I. What possible
+advantage to the man can it be, especially if he is seriously ill, to
+have a partially-trained nurse with him when he might have the best in
+the world?"
+
+"I think," he said, "I mentioned that this is not a matter for
+reasoning or argument. It is you who are required, and no one else. I
+may remind you," he went on, "that this service is a very much smaller
+one than I might have asked you, and, so far as you and I are
+concerned, it clears our debt."
+
+"Clears our debt," she repeated.
+
+"For ever!"
+
+She closed her eyes for several moments. For some reason or other,
+this last reflection seemed to bring her no particular relief. When
+she opened them again, her decision was written in her face.
+
+"I consent, of course," she acquiesced quietly. "Is there anything
+more to tell me?"
+
+"Very little," he replied, "only this. You should send your baggage on
+board the City of Boston as early as possible to-morrow morning. Every
+arrangement has been made for transporting Phillips in his bed, as he
+lies, from the hospital to the boat. The doctor who has been in
+attendance will accompany him to England, but it is important that you
+should be at the hospital and should drive in the ambulance from there
+to the dock. I shall ask very little of you in the way of duplicity.
+What is necessary you will not, I think, refuse. You will be
+considered to have had some former interest in Phillips, to account
+for your voyage, and you will reconcile yourself to the fact that I
+shall not at any time approach the sick man, or be known as an
+acquaintance of his on board the ship."
+
+His words disturbed her. She felt herself being drawn under the shadow
+of some mystery.
+
+"There is something in all this," she said, "which reminds me of the
+time when Richard was your protege, the time when we met before."
+
+He leaned towards her, understanding very well what was in her mind.
+
+"There is nothing criminal in this enterprise--even in my share of
+it," he assured her. "What there is in it which necessitates secrecy
+is political, and that need not concern you. You see," he went on, a
+little bitterly, "I have changed my role. I am no longer the despair
+of the New York police. I am the quarry of a race of men who, if they
+could catch me, would not wait to arrest. That may happen even before
+we reach Liverpool. If it does, it will not affect you. Your duty is
+to stay with a dying man until he reaches the shelter of his home. You
+will leave him there, and you will be free of him and of me."
+
+"So far as regards our two selves," she enquired, "do we meet as
+strangers upon the steamer?"
+
+He considered the matter for a few moments before answering. She felt
+another poignant thrill of recollection. He had looked at her like
+this just before he had bent his back to the task of saving her
+brother's life and liberty, looked at her like this the moment before
+the unsuspected revolver had flashed from the pocket of his
+dress-coat and had covered the man who had suddenly declared himself
+their foe. She felt her cheeks burn for a moment. There was something
+magnetic, curiously troublous about his eyes and his faint smile.
+
+"I cannot deny myself so much," he said. "Even if our opportunities
+for meeting upon the steamer are few, I shall still have the pleasure
+of a New York acquaintance with Miss Beverley. You need not be
+afraid," he went on. "In this wonderful country of yours, the
+improbable frequently happens. I have before now visited at the houses
+of some whom you call your friends."
+
+"Why not?" she asked him. "I should look upon it as the most natural
+thing in the world that we were acquainted. But why do you say 'your
+country'? Are you not an American?"
+
+He looked at her with a very faint smile, a smile which had nothing in
+it of pleasantness or mirth.
+
+"I have so few secrets," he said. "The only one which I elect to keep
+is the secret of my nationality."
+
+She raised her eyebrows.
+
+"Then you can no longer," she observed, "be considered what my brother
+and I once thought you--a man of mysteries--for with your voice and
+accent it is very certain that you are either English or American."
+
+"If it affords you any further clue, then," he replied, "let me
+confide in you that if there is one country in this world which I
+detest, it is England; one race of people whom I abominate, it is
+the English."
+
+She showed her surprise frankly, but his manner encouraged no further
+confidence. She touched the bell, and he bowed over her fingers.
+
+"My friend Phillips," he said, in formal accents, as the butler stood
+upon the threshold, "will never live, I fear, to offer you all the
+gratitude he feels, but you are doing a very kind and a very wonderful
+action, Miss Beverley, and one which I think will bring its
+own reward."
+
+He passed out of the room, leaving Katharine a prey to a curious
+tangle of emotions. She watched him almost feverishly until he had
+disappeared, listened to his footsteps in the hall and the closing of
+the front door. Then she hurried to the window, watched him descend
+the row of steps, pass down the little drive and hail a taxicab. It
+was not until he was out of sight that she became in any way like
+herself. Then she broke into a little laugh.
+
+"Heavens alive!" she exclaimed to herself. "Now I have to find Aunt
+Molly and tell her that I am going to Europe to-morrow with a perfect
+stranger!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Mr. Jocelyn Thew descended presently from his taxicab outside one of
+the largest and most cosmopolitan hotels in New York--or the world.
+He made his way with the air of an _habitue_ to the bar, the precincts
+of which, at that time in the late afternoon, were crowded by a motley
+gathering. He ordered a Scotch highball, and gently insinuated himself
+into the proximity of a group of newspaper men with whom he seemed to
+have some slight acquaintance. It was curious how, since his arrival
+in this democratic meeting-place, his manners and deportment seemed to
+have slipped to a lower grade. He seemed as though by an effort of
+will to have lost something of his natural air of distinction, to be
+treading the earth upon a lower plane. He saluted the barkeeper by his
+Christian name, listened with apparent interest to an exceedingly
+commonplace story from one of his neighbours, and upon its conclusion
+drew a little nearer to the group.
+
+"Say," he exclaimed confidentially, "if I felt in the humour for it I
+could hand you boys out a great scoop."
+
+They were on him like a pack of hungry though dubious wolves. He
+pushed his glass out of sight, accepted one of the drinks pressed upon
+him, and leaned nonchalantly against the counter.
+
+"What should you say," he began, "to Miss Katharine Beverley, the New
+York society young lady--"
+
+"Sister Katharine of St. Agnes's?" one of them interrupted.
+
+"Daughter of old Joe Beverley, the multi-millionaire?" another
+exclaimed.
+
+"Both right," Jocelyn Thew acquiesced. "What should you say to that
+young woman leaving her hospital and her house in Riverside Drive,
+breaking all her engagements at less than twenty-four hours' notice,
+to take a sick Englishman whom no one knows anything about, back to
+Liverpool on the _City of Boston_ to-morrow?"
+
+"The story's good enough," a ferret-faced little man at his elbow
+acknowledged, "but is it true?"
+
+Jocelyn Thew regarded his questioner with an air of pained surprise.
+
+"It's Gospel," he assured them all, "but you don't need to take my
+word. You go right along up and enquire at the Beverley house
+to-night, and you'll find that she is packing. Made up her mind just
+an hour ago. I'm about the only one in the know."
+
+"Who's the man, anyway?" one of the little group asked.
+
+"Nothing doing," Jocelyn Thew replied mysteriously. "You've got to
+find that out for yourself, boys. All I can tell you is that he's an
+Englishman, and she has known him for a long time--kind of love stunt,
+I imagine. She wasn't having any, but now he's at death's door she
+seems to have relented. Anyway, she is breaking every engagement she's
+got, giving up her chairmanship of the War Hospitals Committee, and
+she isn't going to leave him while he's alive. There's no other nurse
+going, so it'll be a night and day job for her."
+
+"What's the matter with the chap, anyway?" another questioner
+demanded.
+
+"No one knows for sure," was the cautious reply. "He's been operated
+upon for appendicitis, but I fancy there are complications. Not much
+chance for him, from what I have heard."
+
+The little crowd of men melted away. Jocelyn Thew smiled to himself on
+his way out, as he watched four of them climb into a taxicab.
+
+"That establishes Phillips all right as Miss Beverley's protege," he
+murmured, as he turned into Fifth Avenue. "And now--"
+
+He stopped short in his reflections. His careful scrutiny of the
+heterogeneous crowd gathered together around the bar had revealed to
+him no unfamiliar type save the little man who at that moment was
+ambling along on the other side of the way. Jocelyn Thew slackened his
+pace somewhat and watched him keenly. He was short, he wore a cheap
+ready-made suit of some plain material, and a straw hat tilted on the
+back of his head. He had round cheeks, he shambled rather than walked,
+and his vacuous countenance seemed both good-natured and
+unintelligent. To all appearances a more harmless person never
+breathed, yet Jocelyn Thew, as he studied him earnestly, felt that
+slight tightening of the nerves which came to him almost instinctively
+in moments of danger. He changed his purpose and turned down Fifth
+Avenue instead of up. The little man, it appeared, had business in the
+same direction. Jocelyn Thew walked the length of several blocks in
+leisurely fashion and then entered an hotel, studiously avoiding
+looking behind him. He made his way into a telephone booth and looked
+through the glass door. His follower in a few moments was visible,
+making apparently some aimless enquiry across the counter. Jocelyn
+Thew turned his back upon him and asked the operator for a number.
+
+"Number 238 Park waiting," the latter announced, a few moments later.
+
+Jocelyn Thew reentered the box and took up the receiver.
+
+"That you, Rentoul?" he asked.
+
+"Speaking," was the guarded reply. "Who is it?"
+
+"Jocelyn Thew. Say, what's wrong with you? Don't go away."
+
+"What is it? Speak quickly, please."
+
+"You seem rather nervy up there. I'm off to Europe to-morrow on the
+_City of Boston_, and I should like to see you before I go."
+
+There was a moment's silence.
+
+"Why don't you come up here, then?"
+
+"I'd rather not," Jocelyn Thew observed laconically. "The fact of it
+is, I have a friend around who doesn't seem to care about losing sight
+of me. If you are going to be anywhere around near Jimmy's, about
+seven o'clock--"
+
+"That goes," was the somewhat agitated reply. "Ring off now. There's
+some one else waiting to speak."
+
+Jocelyn Thew paid for his telephone call and walked leisurely out of
+the hotel with a smile upon his lips. The stimulus of danger was like
+wine to him. The little man was choosing a cigar at the stall. As he
+leaned down to light it, Jocelyn Thew's practiced eye caught the shape
+of a revolver in his hip pocket.
+
+"English," he murmured softly to himself. "Probably one of Crawshay's
+lot, preparing a report for him when he returns from Chicago."
+
+With an anticipatory smile, he entered upon the task of shaking off
+his unwelcome follower. He passed with the confident air of a member
+into a big club situated in an adjoining block, left it almost at once
+by a side entrance, found a taxicab, drove to a subway station
+up-town, and finally caught an express back again to Fourteenth
+Street. Here he entered without hesitation a small, foreign-looking
+restaurant which intruded upon the pavement only a few yards from the
+iron staircase by which he descended from the station. There were two
+faded evergreen shrubs in cracked pots at the bottom of the steps,
+soiled muslin curtains drawn across the lower half of the windows,
+dejected-looking green shutters which, had the appearance of being
+permanently nailed against the walls, and a general air of foreign and
+tawdry profligacy. Jocelyn Thew stepped into a room on the right-hand
+side of the entrance and, making his way to the window, glanced
+cautiously out. There was no sign anywhere of the little man. Then he
+turned towards the bar, around which a motley group of Italians and
+Hungarians were gathered. The linen-clad negro who presided there met
+his questioning glance with a slight nod, and the visitor passed
+without hesitation through a curtained opening to the rear of the
+place, along a passage, up a flight of narrow stairs until he arrived
+at a door on the first landing. He knocked and was at once bidden to
+enter. For a moment he listened as though to the sounds below. Then he
+slipped into the room and closed the door behind him.
+
+The apartment was everything which might have been expected, save for
+the profusion of flowers. The girl who greeted him, however, was
+different. She was of medium height and dark, with dark brown hair
+plaited close back from an almost ivory-coloured forehead. Her grey
+eyes were soft and framed in dark lines. Her eyebrows were noticeable,
+her mouth full but shapely. Her discontented expression changed
+entirely as she held out both her hands to her visitor. Her welcome
+was eager, almost passionate.
+
+"Mr. Thew!" she exclaimed.
+
+He held up his hand as though to check further speech, and listened
+for a moment intently.
+
+"How are things here?" he asked.
+
+"Quiet," she assured him. "You couldn't have come at a better time.
+Every one's away. Is there anything wrong?"
+
+"I am being followed," he told her, "and I don't like it--just now, at
+any rate."
+
+"Any one else coming?" she enquired.
+
+"Rentoul," he told her. "He is in a mortal fright at having to come.
+They found his wireless, and they are watching his house. I must see
+him, though, before I go away."
+
+"Going away?" she echoed. "When? When are you going?"
+
+"To-morrow," he replied, "I sail for London."
+
+She seemed for a moment absolutely speechless, consumed by a sort of
+silent passion that found no outlet in words. She gripped a fancy mat
+which covered an ornate table by her side, and dragged a begilded vase
+on to the floor without even noticing it. She leaned towards him. The
+little lines at the sides of her eyes were suddenly deep-riven like
+scars. Her eyes themselves were smouldering with fire.
+
+"You are going to England!"
+
+"That is what I propose," he assented. "I am sailing on the _City of
+Boston_ to-morrow afternoon."
+
+"But the risk!" she faltered. "I thought that you dared not set foot
+in England."
+
+"There is risk," he admitted. "It is not easy to amuse oneself
+anywhere without it. I have been offered a hundred thousand pounds to
+superintend the conveyance of certain documents and a certain letter
+to Berlin. The adventure appeals to me, and I have undertaken it.
+Until I found this man following me this afternoon, I really believed
+that we had put every one off the track. I know for a fact that most
+of the American officials believe that the papers for which they have
+searched so long and anxiously are in that trunk with the broken seals
+which they found at Halifax."
+
+"What about the Englishman, Crawshay, and Sam Hobson?" the girl asked.
+
+"They are not quite so credulous," he replied, "but at the present
+moment they are in Chicago, and if we get off at four o'clock
+punctually to-morrow afternoon, I scarcely think I shall be troubled
+with their presence on the _City of Boston_." "I have been reading
+about the trunk," the girl said. "Is it really a fake?"
+
+"Entirely," he assured her. "There is not a single document in it
+which concerns either us or our friends. Everything that is of vital
+importance will be on the _City of Boston_ to-morrow and under
+my charge."
+
+She looked at him wonderingly.
+
+"But, Mr. Thew," she exclaimed, "you are clever, I know--even
+wonderful--but what possible chance have you of getting those things
+through--on an American steamer, too!"
+
+"I have to take my risks, of course," he admitted coolly, "but the
+game is worth it. I can't live without excitement, as you know, and
+it's getting harder and harder to find on this side of the ocean.
+Besides, there is the money. I can think of several uses for a hundred
+thousand pounds."
+
+She caught his wrist suddenly and leaned across the table.
+
+"Can I come with you?" she asked breathlessly.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I shouldn't advise a sea voyage just now, Nora," he said. "It isn't
+exactly a picnic, nowadays. Besides, if you come on the _City of
+Boston_ there will be more than one danger to be faced."
+
+"Danger!" she exclaimed contemptuously. "Have I ever shown myself
+afraid? Have we any of us--my brother or father or I--hesitated to run
+any possible risk when it was worth while? This house has been yours,
+and we in it, to do what you will with. It isn't a matter of
+danger--you know that. I come or go as you bid me." He met the fierce
+enquiry of her eyes without flinching. Only his tone was a little
+kinder as he answered her.
+
+"I think, Nora," he said, "that you had better stay."
+
+There was a timid but persistent knocking at the door, and, in
+response to Nora's invitation, a fat and bloated man entered the room
+hurriedly. He sank into a chair and mopped the perspiration from his
+forehead. Jocelyn Thew watched him with an air of contemptuous
+amusement.
+
+"You seem distressed, Rentoul," he remarked. "Has anything gone
+wrong?"
+
+"But it is terrible, this!" the newcomer declared. "Anything gone
+wrong, indeed! Listen. The police have made themselves free of my
+house. My beautiful wireless--it was only a hobby--it has gone! They
+open my letters. They will ruin me. Never did I think that this would
+arrive! There has been some terrible bungling!"
+
+"And you," Jocelyn Thew retorted, "seem to have been the arch
+bungler."
+
+"I? But what have I done?" Rentoul demanded, wringing his hands. "I
+have always obeyed orders. Even a hint has been enough. I have spent a
+great deal of money--much more than I could afford. What have I
+done wrong?"
+
+"You have talked too much, for one thing," was the cold reply, "but
+we haven't time for recriminations now. How did you get here?"
+
+"I came in my car. You will perhaps say that it was not wise, but I
+could not have stood the subway. My nerves are all rotten." Jocelyn
+Thew's tone and gesture were smoothly disdainful.
+
+"You are quite right," he agreed. "You have lost what you call your
+nerve. You had better send for the newspaper men, give them plenty of
+champagne, and explain what a loyal American citizen you are. Have you
+burnt everything?"
+
+"Every scrap of paper in the house which concerns a certain matter is
+burnt," Rentoul declared.
+
+"It would be!"
+
+"But I am in the right," the agitated man protested vigorously. "For
+five years we have worked and with good result. It is finished with us
+now for the present. There is no one who would dare to continue. Five
+long years, mind you, Mr. Jocelyn Thew. That is worth something, eh?"
+
+"Whatever it may be worth," was the somewhat grim reply, "will be
+decided within the next fortnight. That doesn't concern you, though."
+
+"You are not staying over here now that the war has come?"
+
+"Not I! But listen. There is no need for you to know where I am going,
+and I am not going to tell you. There is no need for you to remember
+that you ever knew me in your life. There is no need for you to
+remember any of the work in which you have been engaged. Your
+propaganda has developed a few strong men in this country and
+discovered a good deal of pulp. You are part of the pulp. There is
+only one other thing. If you should be heard of, Rentoul, shall we say
+telephoning, or calling upon the police here, offering to sell--No, by
+God, you don't!" The man's furtive tug at his hip pocket was almost
+pathetic in its futility. Jocelyn Thew had him by the throat, holding
+him with one hand well away from him, a quivering mass of discoloured,
+terrified flesh.
+
+"Now you know," he continued coolly, "why I sent for you, Rentoul. Now
+you know why I rather preferred to see you here to coming to your
+Fifth Avenue mansion. I don't like traps--I don't like traitors."
+
+"I give you my word," the breathless man began, "my word of honour--"
+
+"Neither would interest me," the other interrupted grimly. "You are
+to be trusted just as far as you can be seen, just as far as your own
+safety and welfare depend upon your fidelity. You needn't be so
+terrified," he went on as, leaning over, he took the revolver from
+Rentoul's pocket, drew out the cartridges and threw it upon the table.
+"You've earned any ugly thing that might be coming to you, but I
+should think it very probable that you will be able to go on
+over-feeding your filthy carcass for a few more years. First of all,
+though, perhaps you had better tell me exactly why you have an
+appointment with Mr. Harrison, from Police Headquarters, at eleven
+o'clock to-morrow morning?"
+
+Rentoul was white to the lips.
+
+"I wanted to explain about the wireless," he faltered.
+
+"That sounds very probable," was the contemptuous reply. "What else?"
+
+"Nothing!"
+
+Jocelyn Thew shrugged his shoulders. His victim cowered before
+him. For the first time the girl moved. She came a little nearer, and
+there was fury in her eyes as she looked down upon the terrified man.
+
+"We could keep him here," she whispered. "Ned Grimes and some of the
+others will be in soon. There are plenty of ways of getting rid of him
+for a time."
+
+"It wouldn't be worth while," Thew said simply. "One doesn't commit
+crimes for such carrion."
+
+Rentoul had struggled into a sitting posture. He was dabbing feebly at
+his forehead with an overperfumed handkerchief.
+
+"I wanted to make peace at Headquarters," he whined. "I want to be
+left alone. I should not have told them anything."
+
+"That may or may not be," Jocelyn Thew replied. "All that I am fairly
+sure of is that you will keep your mouth shut now. You know," he went
+on, his voice growing a shade more menacing, "that I never threaten
+where I do not perform. I may not be over here myself, but there will
+be a few men left in New York, and one word from your lips--even a
+hint--and your life will pay the forfeit within twenty-four hours. You
+will be watched for a time--you and a few others of your
+kidney--watched until the time has gone by when anything you could say
+or do would be of account."
+
+"Have you anything more to say to me?" the man stammered. "I feel
+faint."
+
+His persecutor threw open the door.
+
+"Nothing! Get into your car and drive home. Keep out of sight and
+hearing for a time. You are no particular ornament nor any use to any
+country, but remember that everything you have done, you have done
+when the country of your birth was in trouble and the country of your
+adoption was at peace. The situation is altered. The country of which
+you are a naturalised citizen is now at war. You had better remember
+it, and decide for yourself where your duty lies."
+
+They listened to his heavy footsteps as he descended the stairs. Then
+the girl turned to her companion.
+
+"Mr. Thew," she began, "you are not a German or an Austrian, yet you
+are doing their work, risking your life every day. Is it for money?"
+
+"No," he replied, "in a general way it is not for money."
+
+"What is it, then?" she asked curiously.
+
+He stood looking out across the roofs and at the distant skyscrapers.
+She watched him without speaking. She knew very well that his eyes saw
+nothing of the landscape. He was looking back into some world of his
+own fancy, back, perhaps, into the shadows of his own life, concerning
+which no word that she or any one else in the city had ever heard had
+passed his lips.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+The two men--Crawshay and Sam Hobson--still a little breathless,
+stood at the end of the dock, gazing out towards the river. Around
+them was a slowly dispersing crowd of sightseers, friends and
+relations of the passengers on board the great American liner,
+ploughing her way down the river amidst the shrieks and hoots of her
+attendant tugs. Out on the horizon, beyond the Statue of Liberty, two
+long, grey, sinister shapes were waiting. Hobson glanced at
+them gloomily.
+
+"Guess those are our destroyers going to take the _City of Boston_
+some of the way across," he observed. "To think, with all this fuss
+about, that she must go and start an hour before her time!"
+
+"It's filthy luck," the Englishman muttered.
+
+The crowd grew thinner and thinner, yet the two men made no movement
+towards departure. It seemed to Crawshay impossible that after all
+they had gone through they should have failed. The journey in the fast
+motor car, after a breakdown of the Chicago Limited, rushing through
+the night like some live monster, tearing now through a plain of level
+lights, as they passed through some great city, vomiting fire and
+flame into the black darkness of the country places. It was like the
+ride of madmen, and more than once they had both hung on to their
+seats in something which was almost terror. "How are we going?"
+Crawshay had asked perpetually.
+
+"Still that infernal half-hour," was the continual reply. "We are
+doing seventy, but we don't seem to be able to work it down."
+
+A powerful automobile had taken them through the streets of New York,
+and lay now a wreck in one of the streets a mile from the dock. They
+had finished the journey in a taxicab, and the finish had been
+this--half an hour late! Yet they lingered, with their eyes fixed upon
+the disappearing ship.
+
+"I guess there's nothing more we can do," Hobson said at last
+grudgingly. "We can lay it up for them on the other side, and we can
+talk to her all the way to Liverpool on the wireless, but if there is
+any scoop to be made the others'll get it--not us."
+
+"If only we could have got on board!" Crawshay muttered. "It's no use
+thinking of a tug, I suppose?"
+
+The American shook his head.
+
+"She's too far out," he replied gloomily. "There's nothing to be hired
+that could catch her."
+
+Crawshay's hand had suddenly stolen to his chin. There was a queer
+light in his eyes. He clutched at his companion's arm.
+
+"You're wrong, Hobson," he exclaimed. "There is! Come right along with
+me. We can talk as we go."
+
+"Are you crazy?" the American demanded.
+
+"Not quite," the other answered. "Hurry up, man."
+
+"Where to?" "To New Jersey. I've got Government orders, endorsed by
+your own Secretary of War. It's a hundred to one they won't listen to
+me, but we've got to try it."
+
+He was already dragging his companion down the wooden way. His whole
+expression had changed. His face was alight with the joy of an idea.
+Already Hobson, upon whom the germ of that idea had dawned, began to
+be infected with his enthusiasm.
+
+"It's a gorgeous stunt," he acknowledged, as he followed his companion
+into a taxicab. "If we bring it off, it's going to knock the
+movies silly."
+
+Katharine, weary at last of waving her hand to the indistinct blur of
+faces upon the dock, picked up the great clusters of roses which late
+arrivals had thrust into her arms at the last moment, and descended to
+her stateroom upon the saloon deck. She spent only a few minutes
+looking at the arrangement of her things, and then knocked at the door
+of the stateroom exactly opposite. A thick-browed, heavy-looking man,
+sombrely and professionally dressed, opened the door.
+
+"Are you wanting me, Doctor Gant?" she asked.
+
+The doctor shook his head.
+
+"The patient is asleep," he announced in a whisper.
+
+Katharine stepped inside and stood looking down upon the pale, almost
+ghastly face of the man stretched at full length upon the bed.
+
+"Why, I remember him perfectly," she exclaimed. "He was in Number
+Three Ward for some time. Surely he was a clerk at one of the
+drygoods stores down-town?"
+
+The doctor nodded.
+
+"Very likely."
+
+"I remember the case," Katharine continued,--"appendicitis, followed
+by pneumonia, and complicated by angina pectoris."
+
+"You have it precisely."
+
+Katharine's eyes were full of perplexity.
+
+"But the man is in very poor circumstances," she remarked. "How on
+earth can he afford a trip like this? He was on the free list at the
+hospital."
+
+The doctor frowned.
+
+"That is not my business," he said. "My fees are paid, and the steamer
+tickets appear to be in order. He probably has wealthy friends."
+
+Katharine looked down once more at the sleeping man. His face was
+insignificant, his expression peevish, his features without the
+animation of any high purpose.
+
+"I really cannot understand," she murmured, "how he became a friend--a
+friend--"
+
+"A friend of whom?" the doctor enquired.
+
+Katharine reflected and shook her head.
+
+"Perhaps I was indiscreet," she confessed. "I dare say you know as
+much about him as I do. At what time would you like me to come and
+help you change the bandages?"
+
+"I shall change them alone," the doctor replied.
+
+"I prefer to."
+
+Katharine glanced up in surprise.
+
+"Surely you are not in earnest?" she asked. "What else am I here for?
+I suppose you realise that I am fully qualified?"
+
+The doctor unbent a little.
+
+"I am perfectly well aware of that. Miss Beverley," he said, "and it
+may be that there are times when I shall be glad of your help, and in
+any case," he went on, "I shall have to ask you to take a share in the
+night watching. But the surgical part of the case has been a great
+responsibility, and I couldn't afford to have the slightest thing in
+the world happen to one of my bandages."
+
+Katharine nodded.
+
+"You are thinking of Nurse Lynn," she observed. "But really I am very
+careful."
+
+"I am sure of it," the doctor acknowledged, "but so long as I am here,
+with nothing else to do and a very heavy fee if by any chance I bring
+my man through, I may just as well see to these things myself. At any
+moment I might need your help, and I am very happy, Miss Beverley, to
+think that I shall have some one like you to fall back upon. My great
+hope," he went on, "is that we may get him across without a touch of
+the angina."
+
+"Will he ever get well?" she asked.
+
+The doctor shook his head doubtfully.
+
+"One can never tell," he said. "It is just one of these cases which
+are very close to the borderland. With luck he may pull through, may
+even become a fairly strong man again, but he doesn't look as though
+he had much of a physique. Sometime or other the day will come when
+life or death for him will depend entirely upon his will."
+
+She nodded and moved away. "My stateroom is just opposite, if you
+want me at any time, doctor," she said.
+
+He bowed and closed the door after her. Katharine made her way into
+her cabin, sat on her steamer trunk and looked around a little
+helplessly. The confusion of thought in which she had come on board
+was only increased by this introduction to doctor and patient. A
+presentiment of strange and imminent happenings kept her seated there
+long after the dressing bugle had sounded.
+
+The _City of Boston_ was four hours out of harbour, with her course
+set direct for Liverpool. The passengers, of whom there were only a
+very moderate number, had taken possession of their staterooms,
+examined their lifebelts, eaten their first meal, and were now, at
+eight o'clock on a fine June evening, mostly strolling about the deck
+or reclining in steamer chairs. There was none of the old-time feeling
+that a six-days' holiday was before them, a six-days' freedom from all
+anxiety and care. Even in these first few hours of their enterprise a
+certain strain of suppressed excitement was almost universally
+noticeable. There was no escaping from grim facts, and the facts were
+brought home to them all the time by those two businesslike destroyers
+flying the Stars and Stripes, and whose decks were swept continually
+by a deluge of green salt water. Amongst the few people who conversed
+there was but one subject of conversation, a subject which every one
+affected to treat lightly, and yet which no one managed to discuss
+without signs of anxiety.
+
+"This thing will get on all our nerves before we are over," Brand, a
+breezy newspaper man from the West, observed. "What with boat drill
+three times a day, and lifebelt parade going on all the time on the
+deck, one doesn't get a chance to forget that we are liable to get a
+torpedo in our side at any moment."
+
+"Oh, these little gnats of Uncle Sam's will look after us!" a more
+cheerful _confrere_ observed. "Come into the smoking room and I'll buy
+you a drink."
+
+A good deal of courage seemed to be sought in that direction, and
+presently, although the afterglow of the sunset was still brilliant,
+the decks were almost deserted. On the starboard side, only a man and
+a woman remained, and gradually, as though with a certain
+unwillingness, they drifted closer together. The woman, who wore a
+black and white check coat over her blue serge steamer dress, and a
+small black hat from which she had pushed back the veil, was leaning
+over the side of the steamer, her head supported by her hand, looking
+steadily into the mass of red and orange clouds. The man, who was
+smoking a cigar, with both hands in his ulster pockets, seemed as
+though he would have passed her, but without turning her head she held
+out her hand and beckoned him to her side.
+
+"I was beginning to wonder whether you were an absentee," Katharine
+remarked.
+
+"I have been making friends with the captain," Jocelyn Thew replied.
+
+"Please arrange my chair," she begged. "I should like to sit down."
+
+He did as he was asked, arranging her rugs with the care of an old
+traveler. All his movements were very deliberate, even the searching
+way in which his eyes swept the long row of empty chairs on either
+side of them, and the care with which he fastened two open portholes
+above their heads. Finally he accepted her invitation and sat by
+her side.
+
+"I have seen you once before," she observed, "just before we started."
+
+"Yes?" he murmured.
+
+"You were standing on the upper deck," she continued, "a little away
+from the others. You had your glasses glued to your eyes and you
+watched the dock. You had the air of one looking for a late arrival.
+Do you know of any one who has missed the boat?"
+
+"I think so."
+
+"A friend?"
+
+"No, an enemy," he answered equably.
+
+She turned her head a little. It was obvious that he was speaking the
+truth.
+
+"So you have enemies?"
+
+"A great many," he acknowledged, "one in particular just now.
+Perhaps," he went on, "I should say an opponent."
+
+"If that is so," she remarked, after a moment's pause, "you should be
+glad that he missed the boat."
+
+Jocelyn Thew smiled.
+
+"I am," he admitted. "It was part of my plan that he should miss it."
+
+She moved uneasily in her chair.
+
+"So you haven't finished with adventures yet?"
+
+"Not just yet."
+
+There was a brief silence. Then she turned her head a little, leaning
+it still on the back of the chair but watching him as she spoke.
+
+"I have seen my patient," she told him. "I have also had some
+conversation with the doctor."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I am beginning to think," she continued, "that you must be a
+philanthropist."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"You hinted," she went on, "that your friend was in poor
+circumstances. You did not tell me, though, that you were paying the
+whole expenses of this trip, just so that the man should see his home
+and his family before he died."
+
+"I told you that the care of him was a charge upon me," Jocelyn Thew
+reminded her. "That amounts to the same thing, doesn't it? I was
+clever enough, anyhow, to get a good nurse at a small fee."
+
+"I am not at all sure," she replied, "that I shall not charge you
+something outrageous. You are probably a millionaire."
+
+"Whatever you charge me," he promised, "I shall try to pay."
+
+The two journalists, refreshed and encouraged by their libation,
+strolled past arm in arm.
+
+"Queer sort of voyage, this, for a man on the point of death," the
+Westerner observed. "They brought a chap on here, an hour before we
+sailed, in an ambulance, with a doctor and a hospital nurse. Had to be
+carried every foot of the way."
+
+"What's wrong with him?" the other enquired.
+
+"He was only operated upon for appendicitis a fortnight ago, and they
+say that he has angina pectoris amongst other complications. They
+brought him straight from the hospital. Seems he's crazy to get back
+to England to die."
+
+The two men passed out of hearing. Jocelyn flicked the ash from the
+cigarette which he had lighted.
+
+"Sounds a queer sort of story, the way they tell it," he observed,
+glancing at his companion.
+
+"Oh, I don't know," she replied. "Men have done this sort of thing
+before--but it isn't often," she went on, "that a man has done it for
+the sake of another man."
+
+He smiled.
+
+"You have the old-fashioned idea of man's devotion to woman. Can't you
+believe that there may be ties between two men stronger even than
+between a man and the woman he loves?"
+
+"I can believe that," she assented, "but the men must have something
+in common. I should find it hard to believe, for instance, that they
+existed between you and the man downstairs."
+
+He shrugged his shoulders very slightly.
+
+"You forget," he observed, "that a man does not look at his best after
+such an illness as Phillips has had. You find him, perhaps, a little
+insignificant. You are probably aware of his vocation and station
+in life."
+
+"I am."
+
+"And these things," he went on, "make it difficult for you to believe
+that there is any great tie between us two. Yet it is the exception
+which proves the rule, you know. I will not say that your patient has
+ever saved my life or performed any immortal action, yet believe me
+he has courage and a grit you would scarcely believe in, and I am
+speaking seriously when I tell you that not only I but others are
+under deep obligations to him."
+
+He rose to his feet with the air of one who has closed the subject.
+Katharine also threw off her rugs.
+
+"You are going to walk?" she asked. "Please take me with you. I don't
+know why, but I feel restless this evening."
+
+They paced side by side up and down the deck, pausing now and then to
+watch the destroyers and indulging in a very spasmodic conversation.
+At their fourth promenade, as they reached the stern extremity of
+their deck, the woman paused, and, holding to the railing with one
+hand, looked steadily back towards New York. The colour was fading
+slowly from the sky now, but it was still marvellously clear.
+
+"Are you homesick for what lies beneath those clouds?" he enquired
+lightly.
+
+She took no immediate account of his words. Her eyes were fixed upon
+one spot in that distant curtain of sky. Suddenly she pointed with
+her finger.
+
+"What's that?" she asked. "No, the mast's dipping now--you can't see.
+There--the other side."
+
+He followed her outstretched finger, and slowly his fine black
+eyebrows grew closer and closer together. Far away, at a certain spot
+in the clear evening sky, was a little speck of black, hidden every
+now and then by the mast of the ship as she rolled, but distinctly
+there all the time, a little smudge in an amber setting, too small for
+a cloud, yet a visible and tangible object. Katharine felt her
+companion's arm tighten upon hers, and she saw his face grow like a
+piece of marble.
+
+"It's a seaplane," he muttered, "coming from the New Jersey coast."
+
+Through that mysterious agency by means of which news travels on board
+ship as though supernaturally conveyed, the deck was crowded in a very
+few moments by practically every passenger and most of the officers.
+Every form of telescope and field-glass was directed towards the now
+clearly visible seaplane. Speculations were everywhere to be heard.
+
+"Come to warn us of a submarine," was the first suggestion.
+
+"They'd use the wireless," was the prompt reminder.
+
+"But seaplanes can spot the submarines under the sea," one of the
+journalists reminded the bystanders. "They're a better escort than any
+destroyer."
+
+"She can't come all the way across the Atlantic, though," Brand
+observed.
+
+"It's some new device of Uncle Sam's they are testing, perhaps," his
+friend suggested. "Gee! You can hear her now quite plainly. There are
+two of them in the car--a pilot and an observer. Wonder what the
+captain thinks about it."
+
+The captain on the bridge was talking to his chief officer. Fragments
+of their conversation were apparently overheard, for it was soon
+rumoured around that the captain had expressed his opinion that this
+was simply part of some maneuvres they were carrying out from the New
+Jersey Aviation Station. Jocelyn Thew watched the blue fire about
+the mast.
+
+"I wonder whether that's she talking to us," he observed. "One would
+have to be pretty nippy with one's fingers to work aboard on one of
+those small things."
+
+"Do you suppose she is bringing us a message?" Katharine asked.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"They could do that by wireless from the shore," he replied. "Hullo,
+we're slowing down!"
+
+The little crowd was now bubbling over with excitement. The speed of
+the steamer had, without a doubt, been slackened, and a boat was being
+lowered. Brand and his companion, immensely happy, were already
+dotting down their notes for the wireless. The seaplane was gently
+skimming the water almost alongside, and barely fifty yards away. The
+pilot and his companion were clearly visible. The passengers lined the
+whole length of the steamer, leaning over to watch the _denouement_ of
+this strange scene.
+
+"It's a newspaper scoop," one man suggested.
+
+The idea was not favourably entertained.
+
+"No newspaper would be allowed to make use of a Government seaplane,"
+Brand pointed out. "Apart from that, they wouldn't dare to stop a
+steamer out here."
+
+"There's the boat!" some one else exclaimed, pointing to one of the
+ship's lifeboats which had shot out towards the plane. "She must be
+going to pick one of the men up!"
+
+The steamer was merely drifting now, and its strange visitor had
+alighted upon the water, rushing along a little way in front and
+leaving two long, milky paths of white foam behind. Both the pilot and
+the passenger were drenched by every wave. They watched the latter as
+he was taken off, and their eyes followed the return of the lifeboat.
+Almost immediately afterwards the plane, increasing its speed, rushed
+across the surface of the water and rose again.
+
+"Prettiest sight I ever saw in my life," Brand declared
+enthusiastically.
+
+"We live in wonderful times," his friend agreed, looking longingly at
+the wireless office. "I guess we must get a look at this chap,
+anyway," he added. "He's the first man who has overtaken an American
+liner so far from land like this before."
+
+The man who clambered a few minutes later up the ladder of the steamer
+had not the appearance of one who has performed a heroic action. His
+clothes had shrunk upon his body, and the sea water was oozing from
+him in all directions. His face was blue with cold and almost
+unrecognisable. Nevertheless, Jocelyn Thew, who was one of the most
+eager of the sightseers, attained a certain measure of conviction as
+he shut up his glasses with a snap and turned to his companion.
+
+"An Englishman," he observed.
+
+"Do you know him?" she asked curiously.
+
+"I can't go so far as that," he admitted, "but--"
+
+"But he was the man for whom you were looking before the steamer
+started," she declared confidently.
+
+"Seems a little rough luck to be caught up like this out in the
+ocean," he grumbled. "I don't know that the man's likely to do me any
+particular harm," he added, "but I'd just as soon he wasn't
+on board."
+
+Meanwhile, the captain had hurried his belated passenger into his
+room, and the ship saw no more of him that night. By degrees the
+excitement simmered down. Jocelyn escorted his companion to the
+gangway and bade her good night.
+
+"I am not at all sure," she protested, "that I am ready to go down
+yet."
+
+"You must show a little interest in your patient," he insisted.
+
+"But the doctor has already as good as told me to keep away."
+
+"Gant is a peculiar fellow," he told her. "By this time he has
+probably changed his mind and needs your help. Besides, I am anxious
+to hear what they say in the smoking room concerning this
+extraordinary visitor."
+
+She looked around. They were absolutely alone.
+
+"Who is he," she asked, "and what does his coming mean to you?"
+
+"His name is Crawshay," Jocelyn replied. "He is an ex-Scotland Yard
+man who came over here to work for the English Secret Service."
+
+"What does he want here?" she whispered, a little hoarsely.
+
+Jocelyn raised his cap as he turned away.
+
+"Me," he answered. "He'll probably be disappointed, though."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Crawshay found himself a popular hero when at a few minutes before
+eleven o'clock the next morning he made his appearance on deck. With
+little regard to the weather, which was fine and warm, he was clad in
+a thick grey suit and a voluminous overcoat. The fact that his
+borrowed hat was several sizes too large for him detracted a little
+from the dignity of his appearance, a misfortune for which he
+endeavoured to atone by a distinct aloofness of manner. The newspaper
+men, however, were not to be denied.
+
+"Say, Mr. Crawshay," Brand began, stopping him as soon as he had
+emerged from the companionway, "I'd like to shake hands with you. My
+name's Brand. I'm a newspaper man."
+
+Crawshay shook hands, although he showed no particular enthusiasm
+about the proceeding.
+
+"And I am Clark, of the Minneapolis _Record_" the small, dark man, who
+was generally by Brand's side, added. "Put it there, sir."
+
+Crawshay put it there with an incipient reluctance which the two men
+were not slow to note.
+
+"Kind of shock to you yesterday, no doubt," Brand began. "It was a
+fine, plucky thing to do, sir. Ever flown before?"
+
+"Never," Crawshay confessed. "The sensation was--er--entirely new to
+me. I found the descent upon the water most uncomfortable." "Soaked
+your shore clothes, eh?" Brand observed.
+
+"I was not attired for the proceeding," Crawshay admitted. "I was, in
+fact, very inappropriately dressed. I was wearing a thin flannel suit,
+which was completely ruined, and I do not think that I shall ever be
+warm again."
+
+Mr. Brand glanced longingly at his wrist watch and sighed.
+
+"I make it a rule, sir," he said, "never to drink before twelve
+o'clock, but there is no rule without an exception. If you think that
+a double jigger of gin, with a little lemon and--"
+
+"Stop!" Crawshay begged. "I have no sympathy with the weird compounds
+produced by your bartenders. As a matter of fact, I take nothing at
+all except with my meals. I am going to sit in this sunshine and try
+and recover my normal temperature."
+
+"There are a few of the boys on board," Brand continued insinuatingly,
+"who would like to join in our little chat, if you wouldn't mind their
+stepping round."
+
+"I have no desire for a chat with any one," Crawshay objected. "I
+came up on deck to rest. Kindly ask me what you want to know and leave
+me alone for a time."
+
+"Then what in thunder sent you here after an American liner on a
+seaplane?" Brand demanded. "That's about the long and short of what
+we're aching to know, I think."
+
+"You've hit it, Ned, as usual," Mr. Clark, of the Minneapolis
+_Record_, acquiesced. Crawshay drew his rug about him a little
+peevishly.
+
+"My name," he said, "is Charles Reginald Crawshay."
+
+"We got that from the captain," Brand replied. "Very nice name, too."
+
+"I have been attached," Crawshay went on, "to the British Embassy at
+Washington."
+
+"You don't say!" Brand murmured.
+
+"I am returning home," Crawshay continued, "because I intend to join
+the British Army, I was unfortunate enough to miss the boat, and being
+in company with a person of authority and influence, he suggested,
+partly in joke, that I should try to persuade one of the pilots of
+your new seaplanes at Jersey to bring me out. He further bet me five
+hundred dollars that I would not attempt the flight. I am one of those
+sort of people," Crawshay confessed meditatively, "who rise to a bet
+as to no other thing in life. I suppose it comes from our inherited
+sporting instincts. I accepted the bet and here I am."
+
+"In time to save the British Army, eh?" Brand observed.
+
+"In time to take my rightful place amongst the defenders of my
+country," was the dignified rebuke. "Incidentally, I have won a
+hundred pounds."
+
+"Would you do it again for the same money?" Clark asked guilefully.
+
+The Englishman coughed.
+
+"I must confess," he said, "that it is not an experience I am anxious
+to repeat."
+
+Brand rose to his feet.
+
+"Well, sir," he concluded, "I offer you my congratulations on your
+trip. We shall just dot a few words together concerning it for the New
+York newspapers. Anything you'd like to add?"
+
+Crawshay stroked his upper lip.
+
+"You can say," he pronounced with dignity, "that I found the trip most
+enjoyable. And by-the-by, you had better put a word in about the skill
+of the pilot--Lieutenant T. Johnson, I believe his name was. I have no
+experience in such matters, and I found him once or twice a little
+unsympathetic when I complained of bumps, but the young man did his
+best--of that I am convinced."
+
+Mr. Brand's tongue slowly crept round the outside of his mouth. He met
+the eye of his friend Mr. Clark and indulged in a wink. He had the air
+of a man who felt relieved by the operation.
+
+"We are very much obliged to you, Mr. Crawshay," he declared. "You
+have done something to brighten this trip, anyway."
+
+"A little later," Crawshay announced, "either just before your
+luncheon or dinner hour, if you and your friends would meet me in the
+smoking room, I should be delighted to remember in the customary
+fashion that I have won a rather considerable wager."
+
+"Come, that's bully," Brand declared, with a little real feeling in
+his tone. "I tell you, Clark," he added, as they made their way along
+the deck to the writing room, "you've got to prick these damned
+Britishers pretty hard, but they've generally got a bit of the right
+feeling somewhere tucked away. He'll have a swollen head for the rest
+of this voyage, though." Crawshay watched the two men disappear, out
+of the corner of his eye. Then he rose to his feet and commenced a
+little promenade about the sunny portion of the deck. After two or
+three turns he found himself face to face with Jocelyn Thew, who had
+just issued from the companionway.
+
+"Good morning, Mr. Late Passenger!" the latter exclaimed.
+
+Crawshay paused and looked him up and down.
+
+"Do I know you, sir?" he asked.
+
+"I am not so sure that you do," Jocelyn replied, "but after yesterday
+the whole world knows Mr. Reginald Crawshay."
+
+"Very kind of you, I am sure," Crawshay murmured. "What I did really
+wasn't worth making a fuss about."
+
+"You had an uncomfortable ride, I fear?" Jocelyn continued.
+
+"I was most unsuitably attired," Crawshay hastened to explain. "If,
+instead of asking me very absurd questions at the aerodrome, they had
+provided me with some garments calculated to exclude the salt water, I
+should be able to look back upon the trip with more pleasurable
+feelings."
+
+"Pity you had to make it, wasn't it?" Jocelyn observed, falling into
+step with him.
+
+"I scarcely follow you, Mr.--Ought I to know your name? I have a
+shocking memory."
+
+"My name is Jocelyn Thew."
+
+"Mr. Jocelyn Thew," Crawshay concluded.
+
+"I mean that it was a pity you missed the boat, you and Hobson, wasn't
+it? What was the weather like in Chicago?" "Hot," Crawshay replied.
+"I was hotter there than I ever expect to be again in this world."
+
+"A long, tiring journey, too, from Halifax."
+
+"Not only that, sir," Crawshay agreed, "but a dirty journey. I like to
+travel with the windows down--cold water and fresh air, you know, for
+us English people--but the soft coal you burn in your engines is the
+most appalling uncleanly stuff I have ever met."
+
+"Still, you got here," Jocelyn reminded him.
+
+"I got here," Crawshay agreed with an air of satisfaction.
+
+"And you can take a bath three times a day, if you feel like it, on
+board," Jocelyn continued. "I'm afraid you won't find much else
+to do."
+
+"One can never tell," Crawshay sighed. "I have started on ocean trips
+sometimes which promised absolutely nothing in the way of
+entertainment, and I have discovered myself, before the end of the
+journey, thoroughly interested and amused."
+
+"Nothing like looking on the bright side of things," Jocelyn observed.
+
+Crawshay turned his head and contemplated his companion for a few
+moments. Jocelyn Thew, notwithstanding his fine, slim figure, his
+well-cut clothes and lean, handsome face, carried always with him some
+nameless, unanalysable air of the man who has played the explorer, who
+has peered into strange places, who has handled the reins which guide
+the white horse of life as well as the black horse of death.
+
+"I am quite sure," he said, in a tone of kindly approval, "that I
+shall find you a most interesting companion on this trip. You and I
+must have a little further conversation together. I have won a
+considerable sum of money, I may say, by my--er--exploit, and I have
+invited some of these newspaper fellows to take a drink with me before
+luncheon in the smoking room. I hope you will join us?"
+
+"I shall be delighted," Jocelyn accepted. "A drink with a friend, and
+a little mutual toast, is always a pleasure."
+
+Crawshay paused. They were standing outside the entrance to the
+captain's cabin.
+
+"I quite agree with you," he said. "Exercise your ingenuity, Mr.
+Jocelyn Thew, and think out a toast that we can both drink sincerely.
+You will excuse me? I am going in to talk to the captain for a few
+minutes. There are a few matters concerning my personal comfort which
+need his attention. I find the purser," he added, dropping his voice,
+"an excellent fellow, no doubt, but just a trifle unsympathetic, eh?"
+
+"I have no doubt you are right," Jocelyn agreed. "We will meet again,
+then, just before one o'clock."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Crawshay knocked at the door of the captain's room, received a
+stentorian invitation to enter, and sank a little plaintively into a
+vacant easy-chair. The purser, who had been in close confabulation
+with his chief, hastily took his leave.
+
+"Good morning, sir," the visitor said languidly.
+
+"Good morning, Mr. Crawshay," the captain replied. "Feeling a little
+stronger this morning, I hope?"
+
+Crawshay sighed.
+
+"The memory of that experience," he began, settling down in his
+chair,--
+
+"Well, well, you ought to have got over that by this time," the
+captain interrupted. "What can I do for you, Mr. Crawshay? I have been
+yarning with the purser a little longer than usual, this morning, and
+I have some rounds to do."
+
+"I must not stand in the way of your daily avocation," the newcomer
+said gloomily. "I really dropped in chiefly to see if by any chance
+you had had a wireless message about me."
+
+"Not a word."
+
+"No message, eh? Now, do you know, that seems to me exceedingly
+strange," Crawshay ruminated.
+
+"I don't see why it should," was the somewhat brusque reply. "I have
+no doubt that the New York papers have some wonderful headlines--'How
+an Englishman catches the steamer!' or 'An English diplomatist, eager
+to fight'--and all that sort of thing. But apart from the spectacular
+side of it, I don't suppose they consider your adventure of national
+interest."
+
+"On the contrary, it is the development of a new era," Crawshay
+replied, with dignity. "Just consider what actually happened. I miss
+the steamer, owing to the breakdown of the Chicago Limited and a
+subsequent automobile accident. I arrive at the dock whilst you are in
+the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. What do I do? What no one else
+has ever done before! I fly after you! Romance has never pictured such
+a thing. I am a pioneer, Captain."
+
+The Captain grinned.
+
+"You've been pretty sorry for yourself ever since," he observed.
+
+"I must confess that I made up my mind to the heroic deed in a rash
+moment," Crawshay acknowledged. "I am a person of strong and
+unconquerable impulses. You see, that exceedingly disagreeable
+American policeman who was sent up to Halifax on a fool's errand with
+me, and who subsequently led me on another to Chicago, bet me five
+hundred dollars, as we stood upon the dock, that I couldn't catch that
+steamer. Now if there is one thing," he went on, crossing his legs,
+"which excites my interest more than another, it is a bet."
+
+"That and your accent," the captain said, smiling, "are two of your
+most prominent British traits, Mr. Crawshay." The latter took out his
+eyeglass and polished it.
+
+"I have others," he retorted, "but never mind. I understood you to
+say, I think, that you have heard nothing by wireless about me?"
+
+"Not a word."
+
+The captain glanced at his clock and showed some signs of impatience.
+His visitor, however, remained blandly imperturbable.
+
+"I see that you have only one operator in the wireless room," he
+remarked.
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"I happened to be walking by last night, and I glanced in."
+
+"We are short-handed," the captain explained.
+
+"Quite naturally," Crawshay replied. "Now with reference to this young
+man, I watched him coming down the steps from his office this morning.
+You may be surprised to hear, Captain, that I found him
+unprepossessing--in fact I might almost say that I took a dislike
+to him."
+
+"I am sure he would be very much disturbed if he knew your opinion,"
+was the faintly sarcastic reply. "He happens to be a young man with
+exceptionally good credentials."
+
+"Credentials," Crawshay observed blandly, "in which I have no
+faith--no faith whatever."
+
+The captain turned his head suddenly. There was a new expression in
+his face as he looked keenly at his visitor.
+
+"What do you mean, Mr. Crawshay?"
+
+"Nothing much. I see you have been smoking a pipe, Captain. You will
+forgive me if I light one of these perfectly damnable cigarettes which
+are all I have been able to buy on board.--Thank you.--I talk better
+when I smoke."
+
+"It seems to me that you talk a great deal of nonsense," the captain
+declared bluntly.
+
+"Intermingled at times," the other insisted, "with a word or two of
+sense. Now I am going to repeat that I have very little faith in this
+wireless operator of yours. At three o'clock this morning--I don't
+wish to tie myself down, Captain, so I will say in the vicinity of
+that hour--he received a message--a long one, I should imagine. I put
+it to you, sir--was that dispatch for you?"
+
+"No," the captain admitted, "I had no message at that hour or since."
+
+"Very-well, then," Crawshay continued, loosening a little muffler at
+his throat, "I suppose you can ascertain from the purser if any
+message was delivered to any one of your passengers?"
+
+"I certainly can," the captain admitted, "but to tell you the truth,
+sir, I scarcely see how this concerns you."
+
+"I am endeavouring," his visitor replied, with a little wave of his
+hand, "to justify my statement. Enquire of the purser, I beg you. It
+will do no harm."
+
+The captain shrugged his shoulders, touched the bell and despatched
+his steward for Mr. Dix, the purser, who, happening to be on the deck
+outside, made an immediate appearance.
+
+"Mr. Dix," the captain asked him, "can you tell me if you have
+received any wireless message intended for any one of the passengers
+at or since three o'clock this morning?" "Not one, sir."
+
+Crawshay's smile was beatific and triumphant. He relit his cigarette
+which had gone out, and, crossing his legs, made himself a little more
+comfortable.
+
+"Very well, then," he said, "what I should like to know is, what
+became of that message which made very pretty illuminations around
+your conductor, or whatever you call it, for at least a quarter of an
+hour this morning?"
+
+"The message may merely have been an intercepted one," the purser
+pointed out. "It may not have been fur us at all."
+
+"I had an idea," Crawshay persisted, with bland and officious
+precision, "that even intercepted messages, especially in time of war,
+were referred to some person of authority on board. Apart from that,
+however, the message I refer to was written down and delivered to one
+of your passengers. I happened to see your operator leave his office
+with an envelope in his hand."
+
+"At three o'clock in the morning?" the captain observed incredulously.
+
+"At about a quarter of an hour past that time," the other assented.
+
+"And what on earth were you doing about on deck?"
+
+"I have strange habits," Crawshay confessed. "On board ship I indulge
+them. I like to sleep when I feel like it, and to wander about when I
+feel inclined. After my extraordinary, my remarkable experience of
+yesterday, I was not disposed for slumber." "It appears to me, sir,"
+the purser intervened, "that on board this ship you seem to do a great
+deal of walking about, considering you have only been with us for a
+little more than twelve hours."
+
+"Liver," Crawshay explained confidentially. "I suffer intensely from
+my liver. Gentle and continual exercise is my greatest help."
+
+The captain turned towards his junior officer.
+
+"Mr. Dix," he suggested, "perhaps it will clear this little matter up
+if we send for Robins. You might just step out yourself and bring
+him round."
+
+Crawshay extended an eager hand.
+
+"I beg that you will do nothing of the sort," he pleaded.
+
+"But why not?" the captain demanded. "You have made a definite charge
+against a wireless operator on the ship. He ought to be placed in the
+position to be able to refute it if he can."
+
+"There is no doubt," Crawshay agreed, "that in course of time he will
+be given that opportunity. At present it would be indiscreet."
+
+"And why?"
+
+"Because there will be other messages, and one is driven to the
+conclusion that it would be exceedingly interesting to lay hands on
+one of these messages, no record of which is kept, of which the purser
+is not informed, and which are delivered secretly to--"
+
+"Well, to whom?" the captain demanded.
+
+"To a passenger on board this steamer."
+
+The captain shook his head. His whole expression was one of
+disapproval.
+
+"Nonsense!" he exclaimed. "If Robins has failed in his duty, which I
+still take the liberty of doubting, I must cross-question him
+at once."
+
+Crawshay assumed the air of a pained invalid whose wishes have been
+thwarted.
+
+"You must really oblige me by doing nothing of the sort," he begged.
+"I am sure that my way is best. Besides, you make me feel like an
+eavesdropper--a common informer, and that sort of thing, you know."
+
+"I am afraid that I cannot allow any question of sentiment to stand
+between me and the discipline of my ship," was the somewhat
+uncompromising reply.
+
+Crawshay sighed, and with languid fingers unbuttoned his overcoat and
+coat. Then, from some mysterious place in the neighbourhood of his
+breast pocket, he produced an envelope containing a single
+half-sheet of paper.
+
+"Read that, sir, if you please," he begged.
+
+The captain accepted the envelope with some reluctance, straightened
+out its contents, read the few words it contained several times, and
+handed back the missive. He stood for a moment like a man in a dream.
+Crawshay returned the envelope to his pocket and rose to his feet.
+
+"Well, I'll be getting along," he observed. "We'll have another little
+chat, Captain, later on. I must take my matutinal stroll, or I know
+how I shall feel about luncheon time. Besides, there are some
+exuberant persons on board who are expecting me to offer them
+refreshment about one o'clock, out of my winnings, and, attached to
+your wonderful country as I am, Captain, I must admit that cocktails
+do not agree with me." "One has to get used to them," the captain
+murmured absently.
+
+"I am most unfortunate, too, in the size of my feet," Crawshay
+continued dolefully, looking down at them. "If there is one thing I
+thoroughly dislike, it is being on board ship without rubber
+overshoes--a product of your country, Captain, which I must confess
+that I appreciate more than your cocktails. Good morning, sir. I hope
+I haven't kept you from your rounds. Dear me!" he added, in a tone of
+vexation, as he passed through the door, "I believe that I have been
+sitting in a draught all the time. I feel quite shivery."
+
+He shambled down the deck. The purser lingered behind with an
+enquiring expression in his eyes, but his chief did not take the hint.
+
+"Dix," he said solemnly, as he put on his cap and started out on his
+rounds, "I was right. This is going to be a very queer voyage indeed!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+Crawshay walked slowly along the deck until he found a completely
+sheltered spot. Then he summoned the deck steward and superintended
+the arrangement of his deck chair, which was almost hidden under a
+heap of rugs. He had just adjusted a pair of spectacles and was
+preparing to settle down when Katharine, in her nurse's uniform,
+issued from the companionway and stood for a moment looking about her.
+Crawshay at once raised his cap.
+
+"Good morning, Miss Beverley," he said. "You do not recognise me, of
+course, but my name is Crawshay. I had the pleasure of meeting you
+once at Washington."
+
+"I remember you quite well, Mr. Crawshay," she replied, glancing with
+some amusement at his muffled-up state. "Besides, you must remember
+that you are the hero of the ship. I suppose I ought to congratulate
+you upon your wonderful descent upon us yesterday."
+
+"Pray don't mention it," Crawshay murmured. "The chance just came my
+way. I--er--" he went on, gazing hard at her uniform, "I was not aware
+that you were personally interested in nursing."
+
+"That shows how little you know about me, Mr. Crawshay." "I have
+heard," he admitted, "of your wonderful deeds of philanthropy, also
+that you entirely support a large hospital in New York, but I had no
+idea that you interested yourself personally in the--er--may I say
+most feminine and charming avocation of nursing?"
+
+"I have been a probationer," she told him, "in my own hospital, and I
+am at the present moment in attendance upon a patient on board
+this steamer."
+
+"You amaze me!" he exclaimed. "You--did I understand you to say that
+you were in personal attendance upon a patient?"
+
+"That is so, Mr. Crawshay."
+
+"Well, well, forgive my astonishment," he continued. "I had no idea.
+At any rate I am glad that your patient's state of health permits you
+to leave him for a time."
+
+Her expression became a little graver.
+
+"As a matter of fact," she sighed, "my patient is very ill indeed, I
+am afraid. However, the doctor shares the responsibility with me, and
+he is staying with him now for half an hour."
+
+"May I, in that case," he begged, "share your promenade?"
+
+"With pleasure," she acquiesced, without enthusiasm. "You will have to
+take off some of your coats, though."
+
+"I am suffering from chill," he explained. "I sometimes think that I
+shall never be warm again, after my experience of yesterday."
+
+He divested himself, however, of his outside coat, arranged his
+muffler carefully, thrust his hands into his pockets, and fell into
+step by her side. "I am interested," he observed, "in illness. What
+exactly is the matter with your charge?"
+
+"He has had a bad operation," she replied, "and there are
+complications."
+
+"Dear me! Dear me!" Crawshay exclaimed, in a shocked tone. "And in
+such a state he chooses to make a perilous voyage like this?"
+
+"That is rather his affair, is it not?" she said drily.
+
+"Precisely," her companion agreed. "Precisely! I should not, perhaps,
+have made the remark. Sickness, however, interests me very much. I
+have the misfortune not to be strong myself, and my own ailments
+occupy a good deal of my attention."
+
+She looked at him curiously.
+
+"You suffer from nerves, don't you?" she enquired.
+
+"Hideously," he assented.
+
+"And yet," she continued, still watching him in a puzzled fashion,
+"you made that extraordinary voyage through the air to catch this
+steamer. That doesn't seem to me to be at all the sort of thing a
+nervous person would do."
+
+"It was for a bet," he explained confidentially. "The only occasion
+upon which I forget my nerves is when there is a bet to be lost or
+won. At the time," he went on, "my deportment was, I think, all that
+could have been desired. The sensations of which I was undoubtedly
+conscious I contrived to adequately conceal. The after-shock, however,
+has, I must admit, been considerable."
+
+"Was it really so terribly important," she enquired, "that you
+should be in London next week?"
+
+"The War Office made a special point of it," he assured her. "Got to
+join up, you know, directly I arrive."
+
+"Do you think," she enquired after a brief pause, "that you will enjoy
+soldiering better than pseudo-diplomacy? I don't exactly know how to
+refer to your work. I only remember that when we were introduced I was
+told that you had something to do with the Secret Service."
+
+They were leaning over the side of the steamer, and she glanced
+curiously at his long, rather sunken face, at the uncertain mouth, and
+at the eyes, carefully concealed behind a pair of green spectacles. He
+seemed, somehow, to have aged since they had first met, a year ago, in
+Washington.
+
+"To tell you the truth," he confided, "I am a little tired of my job.
+Neither fish nor fowl, don't you know. I took an observation course at
+Scotland Yard, but I suppose I am too slow-witted for what they call
+secret-service work over here."
+
+"America wouldn't provide you with many opportunities, would it?" she
+observed.
+
+"You are quite right," he replied. "I am much more at home upon the
+Continent. The Secret Service in America, as we understand it, does
+not exist. One finds oneself continually in collaboration with police
+inspectors, and people who naturally do not understand one's point of
+view. At any rate," he concluded, with a little sigh, "if I have any
+talents, they haven't come to the front in Washington. I don't believe
+that dear old Sir Richard was at all sorry to see the last of me."
+"And you think you will prefer your new profession?"
+
+"Soldiering? Well, I shall have to train up a bit and see. Beastly
+ugly work they seem to make of it, nowadays. I don't mind roughing it
+up to the extent of my capacity, but I do think that the advice of
+one's medical man should be taken into consideration."
+
+She laughed at him openly.
+
+"Do you know," she said, "I can't picture you campaigning in France!"
+
+"To tell you the truth I can't picture it myself," he confessed
+frankly. "The stories I have heard with reference to the absence of
+physical comforts are something appalling. By-the-by," he went on, as
+though the idea had suddenly occurred to him, "I can't think how your
+patient can rest, anyhow, after an operation, on beds like there are
+on this steamer. I call it positively disgraceful of the company to
+impose such mattresses upon their patrons. My bones positively ache
+this morning."
+
+"Mr. Phillips has his own mattress," she told him, "or rather one of
+the hospital ones. He was carried straight into the ambulance from
+the ward."
+
+"Mr.--er--Phillips," Crawshay repeated. "Have I ever met him?"
+
+"I should think not."
+
+"He is, of course, a very great friend of yours?"
+
+"I don't know why you should suppose that."
+
+"Come, come," he remonstrated, "I suppose I am an infernally curious,
+prying sort of chap, but when one thinks of you, a society belle of
+America, you know, and, further, the patroness of that great
+hospital, crossing the Atlantic yourself in charge of a favoured
+patient, one can't help--can one?"
+
+"Can one what?" she asked coolly.
+
+"Scenting a romance or a mystery," he replied. "In any case, Mr.
+Phillips must be a man of some determination, to risk so much just for
+the sake of getting home."
+
+She turned and recommenced their promenade.
+
+"I wonder whether you realise that it isn't etiquette to question a
+nurse about her patient," she reminded him.
+
+"I'm sure I am very sorry," he assured her. "I didn't imagine that my
+questions were in any way offensive. I told you from the first that I
+was always interested in invalids and cases of illness."
+
+She turned her head and looked at him. Her glance was reproving, her
+manner impatient.
+
+"Really, Mr. Crawshay," she said, "I think that you are one of the
+most inquisitive people I ever met."
+
+"It really isn't inquisitiveness," he protested. "It's just obstinacy.
+I hate to leave a problem unexplained."
+
+"Then to prevent any further misunderstanding, Mr. Crawshay," she
+concluded, a little coldly, "let me tell you that there are private
+reasons which make any further questioning on your part, concerning
+this matter, impertinent."
+
+Crawshay lifted his cap. He had the air of a man who has received a
+rebuff which he takes in ill part.
+
+"I will not risk your further displeasure, Miss Beverley," he said,
+stopping by his steamer chair. "I trust that you will enjoy the
+remainder of your promenade. Good morning!"
+
+He summoned the deck steward to arrange his rugs, and lay back in his
+steamer chair, eating broth which he loathed, and watching Jocelyn
+Thew and Katharine Beverley through spectacles which somewhat impaired
+his vision. The two had strolled together to the side of the ship to
+watch a shoal of porpoises go by.
+
+"I see that you are acquainted with our hero of the seaplane," Jocelyn
+Thew remarked.
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I met him once at Washington and once at the polo games."
+
+"Tell me what you think of him?"
+
+She smiled.
+
+"Well," she confessed, "I scarcely know how to think of him. I must
+say, though, that in a general way I should think any profession would
+suit him better than diplomacy."
+
+"You find him stupid?"
+
+"I do," she admitted, "and in a particularly British way."
+
+Jocelyn glanced thoughtfully across at Crawshay, who was contemplating
+his empty cup with apparent regret.
+
+"You will not think that I am taking a liberty, Miss Beverley, if I
+ask you a question?"
+
+"Why should I? Is it so very personal?"
+
+"As a matter of fact, it isn't personal at all. I was only going to
+ask you if you would mind telling me what our friend Mr. Crawshay was
+talking to you about just now?" "Are you really interested?" she
+asked, with an air of faint surprise. "Well, if you must know, he was
+asking questions about my patient. He appears to be something of a
+hypochondriac himself, and he is very interested in illnesses."
+
+"He has the air of one who takes care of himself," Jocelyn observed,
+with a faint smile. "However, one mustn't judge. He may be delicate."
+
+"I think he is an old woman," she remarked carelessly.
+
+"He rather gives one that impression, doesn't he?" Jocelyn agreed.
+"By-the-by, there wasn't much you could tell him about your patient,
+was there?"
+
+"There really isn't anything at all," she replied. "I just mentioned
+his condition, and as Mr. Crawshay still seemed curious, I reminded
+him that it was not etiquette to question a nurse about her patients."
+
+"Most discreet," Jocelyn declared. "As a matter of fact," he went on,
+"I have scarcely thought it worth while to mention it to you, because
+I knew exactly the sort of answer you would make to any too curious
+questions, but there is a reason, and a very serious reason, why my
+friend Phillips wishes to avoid so far as possible all manner of
+notice and questions."
+
+"You call him your friend Phillips," she remarked, "yet you don't seem
+to have been near him since we started."
+
+"Nor do I intend to," he replied. "That is the other point concerning
+which I wish to speak to you. You may think it very extraordinary, and
+I offer no explanation, but I do not wish it known to--say, Mr.
+Crawshay, or any other casual enquirer, that I have any acquaintance
+with or interest in Phillips."
+
+"The subject is dismissed," she promised lightly. "I am not in the
+least an inquisitive person. I understand perfectly, and my lips
+are sealed."
+
+His little smile of thanks momentarily transformed his expression. Her
+eyes became softer as they met his.
+
+"Now please walk with me for a little time," she begged, "and let us
+leave off talking of these grizzly subjects. You've really taken very
+little notice of me so far, and I have been rather looking forward to
+the voyage. You have traveled so much that I am quite sure you could
+be a most interesting companion if you wished to be."
+
+He obeyed at once, falling easily into step with her, and talking
+lightly enough about the voyage, their fellow passengers, and other
+trifling subjects. Her occasional attempts to lead the conversation
+into more serious channels, even to the subject of his travels, he
+avoided, however, with a curious persistency. Once she stopped short
+and forced him to look at her.
+
+"Mr. Jocelyn Thew," she complained, "tell me why you persist in
+treating me like a child?"
+
+Then for the first time his tone became graver.
+
+"I want to treat you and think of you," he said, "in the only way that
+is possible for me."
+
+"Explain, please," she begged.
+
+He led her again to the side of the ship. The sea had freshened, and
+the spray flew past them like salt diamonds.
+
+"Since it has pleased you to refer to the subject, Miss Beverley," he
+said seriously, "I will explain so far as I am able. I suppose that I
+have committed nearly every one of the crimes which our abbreviated
+dictionary of modern life enumerates. If the truth were known about
+me, and I were judged by certain prevailing laws, not only my
+reputation but my life might be in serious danger. But there is one
+crime which I have not committed and which I do not intend to commit,
+one pain which I have avoided all my life myself, and avoided
+inflicting upon others. I think you must know what I refer to."
+
+"I can assure you that I do not," she told him frankly. "In any case I
+hate ambiguity. Do please tell me exactly what you mean."
+
+"I was referring to my attitude towards your sex," he replied.
+
+There was a faint twinkle in her eyes.
+
+"That sounds so ponderous," she murmured. "Don't you like us, then?"
+
+"There are circumstances in my life," he said, "which prevent my even
+considering the subject."
+
+She turned and looked him full in the eyes. Her very sweet mouth was
+suddenly pathetic, her eyes were full of gentle resentment.
+
+"I do not believe," she said firmly, "that you have done a single
+thing in life of which you ought to be ashamed. I do not believe one
+of the hard things you have said about yourself. I am not a child. I
+am a woman--twenty-six years old--and I like to choose my own friends.
+I should like you to be my friend, Mr. Thew."
+
+He murmured a few words entirely conventional. Nothing in his
+expression responded in the least to the appeal of her words. His face
+had grown like granite. He turned to the purser, who was strolling
+by. As though unconsciously, the finer qualities of his voice had gone
+as he engaged the latter in some trivial conversation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+That night at dinner time a stranger appeared at the captain's table.
+A dark, thick-browed man, in morning clothes of professional cut, was
+shown by one of the saloon stewards to a seat which had hitherto been
+vacant. Crawshay, whose place was nearly opposite, leaned across at
+once with an air of interest.
+
+"Good evening, Doctor," he said.
+
+"Good evening, sir," was the somewhat gruff reply.
+
+"Glad to see that you are able to come in and join us," Crawshay
+continued, unabashed. "You are, I believe, the physician in attendance
+on Mr. Phillips. I am very interested in illnesses. As a matter of
+fact, I am a great invalid myself."
+
+The doctor contented himself with a muttered monosyllable which was
+not brimful of sympathy.
+
+"This is a very remarkable expedition of yours," Crawshay went on. "I
+am a man of very little sentiment myself--one place to me is very much
+like another--so I do not understand this wild desire on the part of
+an invalid to risk his life by undertaking such a journey. It is a
+great feat, however. It shows what can be accomplished by a man of
+determination, even when he is on the point of death." "Who said that
+my patient was on the point of death?" the doctor demanded brusquely.
+
+"It is common report," Crawshay assured him. "Besides, as you know,
+the New York press got hold of the story before you started, and the
+facts were in all the evening papers."
+
+"What facts?"
+
+"Didn't you read them? Most interesting!" Crawshay continued. "They
+all took the same line, and agreed that it was an absolutely
+unprecedented occurrence for a man to embark upon an ocean voyage only
+a few days after an operation for appendicitis, with double pneumonia
+behind, and angina pectoris intervening. Almost as unusual," Crawshay
+concluded with a little bow, "as the fact of his being escorted by the
+most distinguished amateur nurse in the world, and a physician of such
+distinction as Doctor--Doctor--Dear me, how extraordinary! For the
+moment I must confess that your name has escaped me."
+
+The heavy-browed man leaned forward a little deliberately towards his
+_vis-a-vis_. His was not an attractive personality. His features were
+large and of bulldog type. His forehead was low, and his eyes, which
+gave one the impression of being clear and penetrating, were concealed
+by heavy spectacles. His hands only, which were well-shaped and cared
+for, might have indicated his profession.
+
+"My name," he said, "is Gant--Doctor James H. Gant. You are not, I
+presume, a medical man yourself?"
+
+Crawshay shook his head.
+
+"A most admirable profession," he declared, "but one which I should
+never have the nerve to follow."
+
+"You do not, therefore, appreciate the fact," Doctor Gant continued,
+"that a medical man, especially one connected with a hospital of such
+high standing as St. Agnes's, does not discuss his patient's ailments
+with strangers."
+
+"No offence, Doctor--no offence," Crawshay protested across the table.
+"Mine is just the natural interest in a fellow sufferer of a man who
+has known most of the ailments to which we weak humans are subject."
+
+"I suppose, as we have the pleasure of your company this evening," the
+captain intervened, "Miss Beverley will be an absentee?"
+
+"Miss Beverley at the present moment is taking my place," the doctor
+replied. "She insisted upon it. Personally, I am used to eating at all
+times and in all manner of places."
+
+There was a brief silence, during which Crawshay discussed the subject
+of inoculation for colds in the head with his neighbour on the other
+side, and the doctor showed a very formidable capacity for making up
+for any meals which he might have missed by too rigid an attention to
+his patient. The captain presently addressed him again.
+
+"Have you met our ship's doctor yet?" he enquired.
+
+"I have had that honour," Doctor Gant acknowledged. "He was good
+enough to call upon me yesterday and offer his assistance should I
+require it."
+
+"A very clever fellow, I believe," the captain observed.
+
+"He impressed me some," the other confessed. "If any further
+complications should arise, it will be a relief for me to
+consult him."
+
+The subject of the sick man dropped. Crawshay walked out of the saloon
+with the captain and left him at the bottom of the stairs.
+
+"I'll take the liberty of paying you a short call presently, Captain,
+if I may," he said. "I just want to fetch my wraps. And by-the-by, did
+I tell you that I have been fortunate enough to find a pair of rubbers
+that just fit me, at the barber's? One of the greatest blessings on
+board ship, Captain, believe me, is the barber's shop. It's like a
+bijou Harrod's or Whiteley's--anything you want, from an elephant to a
+needle, you know. In about ten minutes, Captain, if I shan't be
+disturbing you."
+
+The captain found the purser on deck and took him into his cabin.
+
+"I saw you speaking to Doctor Gant in the gangway," the former
+observed. "I wonder what he really thinks about his patient?"
+
+"I think I can tell you that, sir, without betraying any confidences,"
+the purser replied. "Unless a miracle happens, there'll be a burial
+before we get across. Poor fellow, it seems too bad after such
+an effort."
+
+The captain nodded sympathetically.
+
+"After all, I can understand this hankering of a man to die in his own
+country," he said. "I had a brother once the same way. They brought
+him home from Australia, dying all the way, as they believed, but
+directly he set foot in England he seemed to take on a new lease of
+life--lived for years afterwards." "Is that so?" the purser remarked.
+"Well, this fellow ought to have a chance. It's a short voyage, and he
+has his own doctor and nurse to look after him."
+
+"Let's hope they'll keep him alive, then. I hate the burial service at
+sea."
+
+The captain turned aside and filled his pipe thoughtfully.
+
+"Dix," he continued, "as you know, I am not a superstitious man, but
+there seems to be something about this trip I can't fathom."
+
+"Meaning, sir?"
+
+"Well, there's this wireless business, first of all. We shall close it
+up in about thirty-six hours, you know, and in the meantime I have
+been expecting half a dozen messages, not one of which has
+come through."
+
+"Young fellow of the highest character, Robins," the purser remarked
+drily.
+
+"That may be," the captain agreed, "and yet I can't get rid of my
+premonition. I wouldn't mind laying you anything you like, Dix, that
+we don't sight a submarine, and shouldn't, even if we hadn't our
+guns trained."
+
+"That's one comfort, anyway. Being a family man, sir--"
+
+"Yes, I know all about your family, Dix," the captain interrupted
+irritably, "but just at the present moment I am more interested in
+what is going on in my ship. I begin to believe that Mr. Crawshay's
+voyage through the air wasn't altogether a piece of bravado,
+after all."
+
+The purser smiled a little incredulously. "He sent round this evening
+to know if I could lend him some flannel pyjamas," he said,--"says all
+the things that have been collected together for him are too thin.
+That man makes me tired, sir."
+
+"He makes me wonder."
+
+"How's that, sir?"
+
+"Because I can't size him up," the captain declared. "There isn't a
+soul on board who isn't laughing at him and saying what a sissy he is.
+They say he has smuggled an extra lifebelt into his cabin, and spends
+half his time being seasick and the other half looking out for
+submarines."
+
+"That's the sort of fellow he seems to me, anyway," the purser
+observed.
+
+"I can't say that I've quite made up my mind," the captain pronounced.
+"I suppose you know, Dix, that he was connected with the Secret
+Service at the English Embassy?"
+
+"I didn't know it," Dix replied, "but if he has been, Lord help us! No
+wonder the Germans have got ahead of us every time!"
+
+"I don't think he was much of a success," the other continued, "and as
+a matter of fact he is on his way back to England now to do his bit of
+soldiering. All the same, Dix, he gave me a turn the other day."
+
+"How's that, sir?"
+
+"Showed me an order, signed by a person I won't name," the captain
+went on, lowering his voice, "requesting me to practically run the
+ship according to his directions--making him a kind of Almighty boss."
+
+Mr. Dix opened his lips and closed them again. His eyes were wide
+open with astonishment. There was an indecisive knock at the door,
+which at a gesture from the captain he opened. Wrapped in a huge
+overcoat, with a cap buttoned around his ears and a scarf nearly up to
+his mouth, Crawshay stood there, seeking admittance.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I am exceedingly fortunate to find you both here," the newcomer
+observed, as he removed his cap. "Captain, may I have a few minutes'
+conversation with you and Mr. Dix?"
+
+"Delighted," the captain acquiesced, "so long as you don't keep me
+more than twenty minutes. I am due on the bridge at nine o'clock."
+
+"I will endeavour not to be prolix," Crawshay continued, carefully
+removing his rubbers, unfastening his scarf and loosening his
+overcoat. "A damp night! I fear that we may have fog."
+
+"This all comes off the twenty minutes," the captain reminded him.
+
+Crawshay smiled appreciatively.
+
+"Into the heart of things, then! Let me tell you that I suspect a
+conspiracy on board this boat."
+
+"Of what nature?" the captain asked swiftly.
+
+"It is my opinion," Crawshay said deliberately, "that the result of
+the whole accumulated work of the German Secret Service, compiled
+since the beginning of the war by means of Secret Service agents,
+criminals, and patriotic Germans and Austrians resident in the States,
+is upon this ship."
+
+"Hell!" the purser murmured, without reproof from his chief.
+
+"It was believed," Crawshay continued, "that these documents,
+together with a letter of vital importance, were on the steamer which
+conveyed the personnel of the late German Ambassador to Europe. The
+steamer was delayed at Halifax and a more or less complete search was
+made. I was present on behalf of the English Embassy, but I did not
+join personally in the search. You have all heard that the seals of a
+tin chest belonging to a neutral country had been tampered with. The
+chiefs of my department, and the head of the American Secret Service,
+firmly believe that the missing papers are in that chest and will be
+discovered when the chest is opened in London. That is not a belief
+which I share."
+
+"And your reasons, Mr. Crawshay?" the captain asked.
+
+"First, because Hobson and I were decoyed to Chicago by a bogus
+telegram, evidently with the idea that we should find it impossible to
+catch or search this steamer. Secondly, because there is on board just
+the one man whom I believe capable of conceiving and carrying out a
+task as difficult as this one would be."
+
+"Who is he?" the captain demanded.
+
+"A very inoffensive, well-mannered and exceedingly well-informed
+individual who is travelling in this steamer under, I believe, his own
+name--Mr. Jocelyn Thew."
+
+"Jocelyn Thew!" the captain murmured.
+
+"Thew!" the purser repeated.
+
+"Now I tell you that I have definite suspicions of this man," Crawshay
+continued, "because I know that for some reason or other he hates
+England, although he has the appearance of being an Englishman. I
+know that he has been friendly with enemy agents in New York, and I
+know that he has been in recent communication with enemy headquarters
+at Washington. Therefore, as I say, I suspect Mr. Jocelyn Thew. I also
+suspect Robins, the wireless operator, because I am convinced that he
+has received messages of which he has taken no record. I now pass on
+to the remainder of my suspicions, for which I frankly admit that I
+have nothing but surmise. I suspect Mr. Phillips, Doctor Gant and Miss
+Katharine Beverley."
+
+The last shock proved too much for the captain. For the first time
+there was distinct incredulity in his face.
+
+"Look here, Mr. Crawshay," he protested, "supposing you are right, and
+that you are on the track of a conspiracy, how do you account for a
+physician from the finest hospital in New York and one of the
+best-known young ladies in America being mixed up in it?"
+
+Crawshay acknowledged the difficulties of the supposition.
+
+"As regards the physician," he said thoughtfully, "I must confess that
+I am without information concerning him, a fact which increases my
+suspicion of Robins, for I should have had his _dossier_, and also
+that of the man Phillips, by wireless twenty-four hours ago."
+
+"What about Miss Beverley then?" the captain enquired. "Her family is
+not only one of the oldest in America, but they are real Puritan,
+Anglo-Saxon stock, white through and through. She has a dozen
+relatives in Congress, who have all been working for war with Germany
+for the last two years. She also has, as she told me herself, a
+brother and four cousins fighting on the French front--the brother in
+the Canadian Flying Corps, and the cousins in the English Army."
+
+"There I must confess that you have me," Crawshay admitted. "What you
+say is perfectly true. That is one of the mysteries. No plot would be
+worth solving, you know, if it hadn't a few mysteries in it."
+
+"If you will allow me a word, Mr. Crawshay," the purser intervened, "I
+think you will have to leave Doctor Gant and his patient and Miss
+Beverley out of your speculations. I have our own ship doctor's word
+for it that Mr. Phillips' condition is exactly as has been stated. Mr.
+Jocelyn Thew may or may not be a suspicious character. Anything you
+suggest in the way of watching him can be done. But as regards the
+other three, I trust that you will not wish their comfort interfered
+with in any respect."
+
+"Beyond the search to which every one on board will have to be
+subjected," Crawshay replied, "I shall not interfere in any respect
+with the three people in question. Mr. Jocelyn Thew, however, is
+different. He is a man who has led a most adventurous life. He seems
+to have travelled in every part of the globe, wherever there was
+trouble brewing or a little fighting to be done."
+
+"Why do you connect him with the present enterprise?" the captain
+asked.
+
+"Because," Crawshay answered, "the wireless message of which your man
+Robins took no record, and concerning which you have kept silence at
+my request, was delivered to Mr. Jocelyn Thew. Because, too," he went
+on, "it is my very earnest belief that at somewhere in the small hours
+of this morning there will be another message, and Mr. Jocelyn Thew
+will be on deck to receive it."
+
+The captain knocked out the ashes of his pipe a little apprehensively.
+
+"If half what you suspect is true, Mr. Crawshay," he said, "you will
+forgive my saying so, but Jocelyn Thew is not a man you ought to
+tackle without assistance."
+
+There was a peculiar glitter in Crawshay's deep-set eyes. For a single
+moment a new-born strength seemed to deepen the lines in his face--a
+transforming change.
+
+"You needn't worry, Captain," he remarked coolly. "I am not taking too
+many chances, and if our friend Mr. Jocelyn Thew should turn out to be
+the man I believe him to be, I would rather tackle him alone."
+
+"Why," Mr. Dix demanded, "should anything in the shape of violence
+take place? The ship can be searched, every article of baggage
+ransacked, and every passenger made to run the gauntlet."
+
+Crawshay smiled.
+
+"The search you speak of is already arranged for, Mr. Dix," he said;
+"long cables from my friend Hobson have already reached Liverpool--but
+the efficacy of such a proposed search would depend a little, would it
+not, upon whether we reach Liverpool?" "But if we were submarined,"
+the captain pointed out, "the papers would go to the bottom."
+
+Crawshay leaned forward and whispered one word in the captain's ear.
+The latter sat for a moment as though paralysed.
+
+"What's to prevent that fellow Robins bringing her right on to our
+track?" Crawshay demanded. "That is the reason I spent last night
+listening for the wireless. It's the reason I'm going to do the same
+to-night."
+
+The captain sprang to his feet.
+
+"We'll run no risks about this," he declared firmly. "We'll dismantle
+the apparatus. I'd never hold up my head again if the _Von
+Blucher_ got us!"
+
+Crawshay held out his hand.
+
+"Forgive me, Captain," he said, "but we want proof. Leave it to me,
+and if things are as I suspect, we'll have that proof--probably before
+to-morrow morning," he added, glancing at the chart.
+
+There was a call down the deck, a knock at the door. The captain took
+up his oilskins regretfully.
+
+"You will remember," Crawshay enjoined, "that little mandate I showed
+you?"
+
+The captain nodded grimly.
+
+"I am in your hands," he admitted. "Don't forget that the safety of
+the ship may be in your hands, too!"
+
+"Perhaps," Crawshay whispered, "even more than the safety of the
+ship."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+Robins, the wireless operator, bent closer over his instrument, and
+the blue fires flashed from the masthead of the steamer, cutting their
+way through the darkness into the black spaces beyond. The little room
+was lit by a dull oil light, the door was fast-closed and locked. Away
+into the night sped one continual message.
+
+"Steamship _City of Boston_, lat.... long.... lying four points to
+northward of usual course. Reply."
+
+A time came when the young man ceased from his labours and sat up with
+a yawn. He stretched out his hand and lit a cigarette, walked to the
+little round window which commanded the deck, gazed out of it
+steadily, and turned back once more to his chair before the
+instrument. Then something happened. A greater shock than any that lay
+in the blue lightning which he had been generating was awaiting him.
+His right hand was suddenly gripped and held on to the table. He found
+himself gazing straight down the black bore of a small but uncommonly
+ugly-looking revolver. A voice which seemed remarkable for its
+convincing qualities, addressed him.
+
+"If you speak a word, Robins, move, or show signs of any attempt to
+struggle, I shall shoot you. I have the right and the power." Robins,
+a young man of nerve, whose name stood high on an official list of
+those who might be relied upon for any desperate enterprise, sat like
+a numbed thing. Dim visions of the face of this man, only a few feet
+away from his own, assailed him under some very different guise. It
+was Crawshay the man, stripped for action, whose lean, strong fingers
+were gripping the butt of that revolver, and whose eyes were holding
+him like gimlets.
+
+"Now, if you are wise, answer me a few questions," Crawshay began.
+"I'd have brought the captain with me, but I thought we might do
+better business alone. You've been advertising the ship's
+whereabouts. Why?"
+
+"I've only been giving the usual calls," the young man muttered.
+
+"Don't lie to me," was the grim reply. "Your wireless was supposed to
+be silent from yesterday midday except for the purpose of receiving
+calls. I ask you again, why and to whom were you advertising our
+whereabouts and course?"
+
+Robins looked at the revolver, looked at Crawshay, and was dimly
+conscious of a damp feeling about his forehead. Nevertheless, his lips
+were screwed together, and he remained silent.
+
+"Come," Crawshay went on, "we'll have a common-sense talk. I am an
+agent of the British Secret Service. I have unlimited powers upon this
+ship, power to put a bullet through your head if I choose, and not a
+soul to question it. The game's up so far as you are concerned. You
+have received messages on this steamer of which you have kept no
+record, but which you have delivered secretly to a certain passenger.
+Of that I may or may not speak later on. At present I am more
+interested in your operations of to-night. You are signalling the
+information of our whereabouts for some definite reason. What is it?
+Were you trying to pick up the _Blucher?_"
+
+"I wasn't trying to pick up anybody," the young man faltered.
+
+Crawshay's fingers gripped him by the shoulder. His very
+determined-looking mouth had suddenly become a ring of steel.
+
+"If you don't give me a different answer in ten seconds, Robins, I'll
+blow your brains all over the cabin!"
+
+The young man broke.
+
+"I was trying to pick up the _Blucher_," he acknowledged.
+
+"That's exactly what I thought," Crawshay muttered. "That's the game,
+without a doubt. What are you? An Englishman?"
+
+"I am not!" was the almost fierce reply. "Blast England!"
+
+Crawshay looked into the black eyes, suddenly lit with an ugly fire,
+and nodded.
+
+"I understand," he said. "Robins, your name, eh? Any relation to the
+young Sinn Feiner who was shot in Dublin a few months ago?"
+
+"Brother."
+
+"That may save your life later on," Crawshay observed coolly. "Now you
+can do one of three things. You can come with me to the captain, be
+put in irons and shot as soon as we land--or before, if the _Blucher_
+finds us; or you can send the message which I shall give you; or you
+can end your days where you sit."
+
+"What message?" the young man demanded.
+
+"You will send out a general call, as before, repeating the latitude
+and longitude with a difference of exactly three points, and you will
+repeat the altered course, only you will substitute the word 'south'
+for the word 'north.'"
+
+The young man's eyes suddenly gleamed as he turned towards the
+instrument, but Crawshay smiled with grim understanding.
+
+"Let me tell you that I understand the wireless," he said
+impressively. "You will give the message exactly as I have told you or
+we finish things up on the spot. I think you had better. It's a matter
+of compulsion, you know--in fact I'll explain matters to Mr. Jocelyn
+Thew, if you like."
+
+The young man's eyes were round with amazement.
+
+"Jocelyn Thew!" he repeated.
+
+"Precisely. You needn't look so terrified. It isn't you who have given
+away. Now what are you going to do?"
+
+The young man swung round to his instrument. Crawshay released his
+hand, stepping a little back.
+
+"You are going to send the message, then?"
+
+"Yes!" was the sullen reply.
+
+"Capital!" Crawshay exclaimed, cautiously subsiding into a chair. "Now
+you'll go on every ten minutes until I tell you to stop."
+
+Robins bent over his task, and again the crackling waves broke away
+from their prison. Once his finger hesitated. He glanced
+surreptitiously at Crawshay. "Four degrees south," Crawshay
+repeated softly.
+
+The night wore on. Every ten minutes the message was sent. Then there
+followed a brief silence, spent generally by Robins with his head
+drooped upon his clasped arms; by Crawshay in unceasing vigil. Just as
+the first faint gleam of daylight stole into the little turret
+chamber, came the long-waited-for reply. The young man wrote down the
+few lines and passed them over. Crawshay, who had risen to his feet,
+glanced at them, nodded, and thrust the paper into his pocket.
+
+"That seems quite satisfactory," he said coldly. "Now ask the
+_Blucher_ her exact course?"
+
+Robins sat for a moment motionless. He felt Crawshay's presence
+towering over him, felt again the spell of his softly-spoken command.
+
+"Don't waste any time, please. Do as I tell you."
+
+Robins obeyed. In less than a quarter of an hour he handed over
+another slip of paper. Crawshay thrust it into his pocket.
+
+"That concludes our business," he said. "Now let me see if I remember
+enough of this apparatus to put it out of action."
+
+He bent over the instrument, removed some plugs, turned some screws,
+and finally placed in his pocket a small concealed part of the
+mechanism. Then he turned towards Robins.
+
+"You can leave here now," he directed. "I shall lock the place up."
+
+Robins had in some measure recovered himself. He was a quiet,
+hollow-eyed young person, with thick black hair and a thin frame,
+about which the uniform of the ship hung loosely. "You are the man
+who boarded the steamer from a seaplane, aren't you, and pretended
+afterwards to be such a ninny?"
+
+"I am," Crawshay acknowledged.
+
+"How did you get on to this?"
+
+Crawshay raised his eyebrows.
+
+"Sorry," he replied, "that is a matter concerning which I fear that
+you will have to restrain your curiosity."
+
+"How did you get in here?"
+
+"By means of a duplicate key which I obtained from the purser. I hid
+in your bunk there and drew the curtains. Quite a comfortable
+mattress, yours. You'll have to change your sleeping quarters, though."
+
+"What is going to happen to me?" the young man enquired.
+
+"Probably nothing extreme. You were philosophical enough to accept the
+situation. If," Crawshay went on more slowly, "you had falsified a
+single word of those messages, your end would have been somewhat
+abrupt and your destination according to your past life. As it is, you
+can go where you choose now and report to the captain later on in the
+morning, after I have had a talk with him."
+
+"My kit is all in here."
+
+Crawshay laid his hand upon the operator's shoulder in peremptory
+fashion.
+
+"Then you will have to do without it for the present," he replied
+coolly. "Outside."
+
+The young man turned on his heel and disappeared without a word.
+Crawshay glanced once more at the dismantled instrument, then followed
+Robins on to the deck, carefully locking the door behind him. A grey,
+stormy morning was just breaking, with piles of angry clouds creeping
+up, and showers of spray breaking over the ship on the weather side.
+He chose a sheltered spot and stood for a few moments breathing in the
+strong salt air. Notwithstanding his success, he was unaccountably
+depressed. As far as he could see across the grey waste of waters,
+there was no sign of any passing ship, but the eastern horizon was
+blurred by a low-hanging bank of sinister-looking clouds. Suddenly a
+voice rang out, hailing him. It was the captain descending from
+the bridge.
+
+"Come and have a cup of coffee with me in my room, Mr. Crawshay," he
+invited.
+
+Crawshay felt himself suddenly back again in the world of real
+happenings. His depression passed as though by magic. After all, he
+had won the first trick, and the next move was already forming up in
+his mind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+The captain sank into his easy-chair a little wearily. It had been a
+long and rather trying vigil. His steward filled two cups with coffee
+and at a sign from his master withdrew.
+
+"Any news?"
+
+"I have been compelled," Crawshay announced, stirring his coffee, "to
+dismantle your wireless."
+
+"The devil you have!"
+
+"Also, to speak words of wisdom to young Robins. I detected him
+signalling our location to the _Blucher_."
+
+The captain set down his coffee cup.
+
+"Mr. Crawshay," he said, "this is a very serious accusation."
+
+"It isn't an accusation at all--it's a fact," Crawshay replied.
+"Luckily, he hadn't picked her up when I got there. He signalled our
+exact location and our course a dozen times or more, without response.
+Then I took a hand in the game."
+
+"Exactly what happened?" the captain enquired.
+
+"Well, I borrowed a key from Mr. Dix, and whilst the young man was
+down at his supper I concealed myself in his bunk. I listened to him
+for a short time, and then I intervened."
+
+"Did he make any trouble?"
+
+"He had no chance," Crawshay explained, a little grimly. "I was first
+off the mark. On this piece of paper," he added, smoothing it out,
+"you will find Robins' calculations as to our whereabouts, which I
+took as being correct. These, you understand, were not picked up.
+Lower down you will see the message which he sent under my
+superintendence later on--"
+
+"Superintendence?" the captain interrupted.
+
+"At the point of my revolver," Crawshay explained. "This message was
+picked up by the _Blucher_."
+
+The captain scanned the calculations eagerly.
+
+"Wish you'd given us a little more room," he muttered. "However, it
+will be all right unless we get fog. We might blunder into one
+another then."
+
+"This little incident," Crawshay continued, crossing his legs,
+"confirms certain impressions with which I came on board. I think that
+the scheme was to get the documents on board this steamer, and then,
+in order to avoid the inevitable search at Liverpool, I fancy it was
+arranged that the _Blucher_ should be on the lookout for us and take
+over the messenger, whoever he may be, and the documents. It's a
+straightforward, simple little scheme, which we have now to look at
+from our own point of view. In the first place, the _Blucher_ is now
+very much less likely to capture us. In the second place, I would
+suggest that in case the _Blucher_ should happen to blunder across us,
+we make the search at once instead of in Liverpool."
+
+"What, search every one on board?" the captain asked.
+
+"Suspected persons only."
+
+"Exactly who are they?" "First and foremost, Mr. Jocelyn Thew."
+
+"And afterwards?"
+
+Crawshay hesitated.
+
+"Mr. Phillips and his entourage."
+
+"What, the man who is supposed to be dying?"
+
+"I will admit," Crawshay said, "that this is more or less guesswork,
+but I suspect every one with whom Jocelyn speaks."
+
+"Great heavens, you are not thinking of Miss Beverley!" the captain
+exclaimed.
+
+"I fail utterly to understand her acquaintance with Jocelyn Thew,"
+Crawshay confided. "I do not propose, however, that you interfere with
+these people for the moment. What I do ask is that Jocelyn Thew's
+effects are searched, and at once."
+
+"It's a thing that's never happened before on any steamer I've
+commanded," the captain said reluctantly, "but if it has to be done, I
+will do it myself."
+
+"What chance of fog is there?" his companion enquired.
+
+"We shall get some within twenty-four hours, for certain. It's coming
+up from the west now."
+
+"Then the sooner you make a start with Mr. Jocelyn Thew, the better,"
+Crawshay suggested. "I don't think there's one chance in a hundred
+that he'd have those documents in any place where we should be likely
+to find them by any ordinary search, but you can never tell. The
+cleverest men often adopt the most obvious methods."
+
+The captain yawned.
+
+"I'll have two hours' sleep," he decided, "then Dix and I will tackle
+the job. I don't suppose you want to be in it?" "I should prefer
+not," Crawshay replied. "I'll follow your example," he added, rising
+to his feet.
+
+The habits of Mr. Jocelyn Thew on shore were doubtless most regular,
+but on board ship he had developed a proclivity for sleeping until
+long after the first breakfast gong. About half-past eight that
+morning, he was awakened from a sound sleep by a tap on his door, and
+instead of the steward with his hot water, no less a person entered
+than the captain, followed by the purser. Jocelyn sat up in his bunk
+and rubbed his eyes.
+
+"Good morning, gentlemen," he said. "Anything wrong?"
+
+The captain undid the catch of the door and closed it behind him.
+
+"Are you sufficiently awake to listen to a few words from me on a
+subject of importance, Mr. Thew?" he asked.
+
+"Certainly," was the prompt reply.
+
+"Very well, then," the captain proceeded, "I shall commence by taking
+you into my confidence. There is an impression on the part of the
+British and American Secret Services that an attempt is being made to
+convey documents of great importance, and containing treasonable
+matter, to Europe by some one on board this ship."
+
+Jocelyn Thew, who was attired in silk pyjamas of very excellent
+quality, swung himself out of the bunk and sat upon the side of it.
+The captain was an observant man and of somewhat luxuriant tastes
+himself, and he fully appreciated the texture and quality of the
+suspected man's night apparel. "This sounds remarkably interesting,"
+Jocelyn said. "Very kind of you, Captain, I am sure, to come and tell
+me about it."
+
+"My visit," the captain continued, a little drily, "had a more
+definite object. It is my duty to explain to you that the
+circumstances of this voyage are unprecedented. We are going to take
+liberties with our passengers which in normal times would not be
+dreamed of."
+
+Jocelyn Thew pushed the knob with his left hand and let some cold
+water run into his basin. Then he dabbed his eyes for several moments
+with his fingers.
+
+"Yes, I seem to be awake," he remarked. "Tell me about these
+liberties, Captain?"
+
+"To begin with, I am going to search your stateroom and baggage--or
+rather they are going to be searched under my supervision. Your trunk
+from the hold has already been brought up and is in the gangway."
+
+"It seems to me," Jocelyn said, sitting, as Mr. Dix expressed it
+afterwards, like a tiger about to spring, "that you've been listening
+to that crazy loon, Crawshay."
+
+"I am not at liberty," the captain rejoined, "to divulge the source
+from which my information came. I am only able to acquaint you with my
+intentions, and to trust that you will offer no obstruction."
+
+"The obstruction which I could offer against the captain of a ship and
+his crew would be a waste of energy," Jocelyn observed, with fine
+sarcasm. "At the same time, I protest most bitterly against my things
+being touched. Any search you deemed necessary could be undertaken at
+Liverpool by the Customs officers in the usual way. I consider that
+this entrance into my stateroom on the high seas, and this arbitrary
+resolve of yours to acquaint yourself with the nature of my belongings
+is indefensible and a gross insult."
+
+"I am sorry that you take it this way, Mr. Thew," the captain
+regretted. "Any complaints you feel it right to make can be addressed
+to the company's agents in Liverpool. At present I must proceed with
+what I conceive to be my duty. Do you care to hand Mr. Dix your keys?"
+
+"I will see Mr. Dix damned first!" Jocelyn assured him.
+
+The captain shrugged his shoulders, called to the steward, who was
+waiting outside, and the search commenced. They opened drawers, they
+turned up the carpet. They invited Jocelyn Thew to sit upon the couch
+whilst they ripped open the bed, and they invited him to return to the
+bed whilst they ripped up the couch. His personal belongings, his
+dressing-case and his steamer trunk were gone through with painstaking
+care. His trunk, which was then dragged in, was ransacked from top to
+bottom. In due course the search was concluded, and except that his
+wearing apparel seemed chosen with extraordinary care and taste,
+nothing in any way suspicious was discovered. The captain made haste
+to acknowledge the fact.
+
+"Well, Mr. Thew," he announced, "I have done my duty and you are out
+of it with a clean sheet. Have you any objection to answering a few
+questions?" "Every objection in the world," Jocelyn Thew replied.
+
+The purser ventured to intervene.
+
+"Come, Mr. Thew," he said, "you're an Englishman, aren't you?"
+
+A light flashed in Thew's eyes.
+
+"I shall break the promise I made to the captain just now," he
+declared, "and answer that one question, at any rate. I thank God I
+am not!"
+
+Both men were a little startled. Jocelyn's cold, clear voice, his
+manner and bearing, were all so essentially Saxon. The captain,
+however, recovered himself quickly.
+
+"If the tone of your voice is any index to your feelings, Mr. Thew,"
+he said, "you appear to have some grudge against England. In that case
+you can scarcely wonder at the suspicions which have attached
+themselves to you."
+
+"Suspicions!" Jocelyn repeated sarcastically. "Well, present my
+compliments to the wonderful Mr. Crawshay! I presume that I am at
+liberty now to take my bath?"
+
+"In one moment, Mr. Thew. Even though you do not choose to answer
+them, there are certain questions I intend to ask. The first is, are
+you prepared to produce the Marconigram which you received
+last evening?"
+
+"How do you know that I received one?"
+
+"The fact has come to my knowledge," the captain said drily.
+
+"You had better ask the operator about it."
+
+"The operator is at the present moment under arrest," was the terse
+reply. If the news were a shock to Thew, he showed it in none of the
+ordinary ways. His face seemed to fall for a moment into harder lines.
+His mouth tightened and his eyes flashed.
+
+"Under arrest?" he repeated. "More of Crawshay's tomfoolery, I
+suppose?"
+
+"More of Mr. Crawshay's tomfoolery," the captain acknowledged. "Robins
+is accused of having received a Marconigram of which he took no note,
+and which he handed to a passenger. He is also accused of attempting
+to communicate with an enemy raider."
+
+A peculiar smile parted Jocelyn's lips.
+
+"You seem to wish to make this steamer of yours the _mise-en-scene_ of
+a dime novel, Captain," he observed. "I accept the part of villain
+with resignation--but I should like to have my bath."
+
+"You don't propose to tell me, then," his questioner persisted, "the
+contents of that message?"
+
+"I have no recollection of having received one," Jocelyn replied
+coolly. "You are making me very late for breakfast."
+
+They left him with a brusque word of farewell, to which he did not
+reply. Jocelyn, in a dark-green silk dressing gown, with a huge sponge
+and various silver-topped bottles, departed for the bathroom. The
+captain and the purser strolled up on deck.
+
+"What do you make of that fellow, Dix?" the former asked.
+
+The purser coughed.
+
+"If you ask me, sir," he replied, "I think that Mr. Crawshay has got
+hold of the wrong end of the stick."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Katharine came on deck that morning in a somewhat disturbed frame of
+mind. It was beginning to dawn upon her that her position as sick
+nurse to Mr. Phillips was meant to be a sinecure. She was allowed to
+sit by the sick man's side sometimes whilst the doctor took a
+promenade or ate a meal in the saloon, but apart from that, the usual
+exercise of her duties was not required from her. She was forced to
+admit that there was something mysterious about the little stateroom,
+the suffering man, and the doctor who watched him speechlessly
+night and day.
+
+She was conscious presently that Crawshay, who had been walking up and
+down the deck, had stopped before the chair on which she lay extended.
+She greeted him without enthusiasm.
+
+"Are you taking one of your health constitutionals, Mr. Crawshay?" she
+enquired.
+
+"Not altogether," he replied. "May I sit down for a moment?"
+
+"Of course! I don't think any one sits in that chair."
+
+He took his place by her side, deliberately removed his muffler and
+unfastened his overcoat. It struck her, from the first moment she
+heard his voice, that his manner was somehow altered. She was
+altogether unprepared, however, for the almost stern directness of his
+first question. "Miss Beverley," he began, "will you allow me to ask
+you how long you have known Mr. Jocelyn Thew?"
+
+She turned her head towards him and remained speechless for a moment.
+It seemed to her that she was looking into the face of a stranger. The
+little droop of the mouth had gone. The half-vacuous, half-bored
+expression had given place to something altogether new. The lines of
+his face had all tightened up, his eyes were hard and bright. She
+found herself quite unable to answer him in the manner she
+had intended.
+
+"Are you asking me that question seriously, Mr. Crawshay?"
+
+"I am," he assured her. "I have grave reasons for asking it."
+
+"I am afraid that I do not understand you," she replied stiffly.
+
+"You must change your attitude, if you please, Miss Beverley,"
+Crawshay persisted. "Believe me, I am not trying to be impertinent. I
+am asking a question the necessity for which I am in a position
+to justify."
+
+"You bewilder me!" she exclaimed.
+
+"That is simply because you looked upon me as a different sort of
+person. To tell you the truth, I should very much have preferred that
+you continued to look upon me as a different sort of person during
+this voyage, but I cannot see my way clear to keep silence on this one
+point. I wish to inform you, if you do not know it already, that Mr.
+Jocelyn Thew is a dangerous person for you to know, or for you to be
+associated with in any shape or form." She would have risen to her
+feet but he stopped her.
+
+"Please look at me," he begged.
+
+She obeyed, half against her will.
+
+"I want you to ask yourself," he went on, "whether you do not believe
+that I am your well-wisher. What I am saying to you, I am saying to
+save you from a position which later on you might bitterly regret."
+
+She was conscious of a quality in his tone and manner entirely strange
+to her, and she found any form of answer exceedingly difficult. The
+anger which she would have preferred to have affected seemed, in the
+face of his earnestness, out of place.
+
+"It seems to me," she said, "that you are assuming something which
+does not exist. I am not on specially intimate terms with Mr. Jocelyn
+Thew. I have not talked to him any more than to any other casual
+passenger."
+
+"Is that quite honest?" he asked quietly. "Isn't it true that
+Jocelyn Thew is interested in your mysterious patient?"
+
+She started.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Just what I say," he replied. "I happen also to have very grave
+suspicions concerning the presence on this ship of Mr. Phillips and
+his doctor."
+
+Her fingers gripped the side of her deck chair. She leaned a little
+towards him.
+
+"What concern is all this of yours?" she demanded.
+
+"Never mind," he answered. "I am risking more than I should like to
+say in telling you as much as I have told you. I cannot believe that
+you would consciously associate yourself with a disgraceful and
+unpatriotic conspiracy. That is why I have chosen to risk a great deal
+in speaking to you in this way. Tell me what possible consideration
+was brought to bear upon you to induce you to accept your present
+situation?"
+
+Katharine sat quite still. The thoughts were chasing one another
+through her brain. Then she was conscious of a strange thing. Her
+companion's whole expression seemed suddenly to have changed. Without
+her noticing any movement, his monocle was in his left eye, his lip
+had fallen a little. He was looking querulously out seaward.
+
+"I don't believe," he declared, "that the captain has any idea about
+the weather prospects. Look at those clouds coming up. I don't know
+how you are feeling, Miss Beverley, but I am conscious of a
+distinct chill."
+
+Jocelyn Thew had come to a standstill before them. He was wearing no
+overcoat and was bare-headed.
+
+"I guess that chill is somewhere in your imagination, Mr. Crawshay,"
+he observed. "You are pretty strong in that line, aren't you?"
+
+Crawshay struggled to his feet.
+
+"I have some ideas," he confessed modestly. "I spend my idle moments,
+even here, weaving a little fiction."
+
+"And recounting it, I dare say," Jocelyn ventured.
+
+"I am like all artists," Crawshay sighed. "I love an audience. I must
+express myself to something. I will wish you good evening, Miss
+Beverley. I feel inclined to take a little walk, in case it becomes
+too rough later on."
+
+He shuffled away, once more the perfect prototype of the _malade
+imaginaire_. Jocelyn Thew watched him in silence until he had
+disappeared. Then he turned and seated himself by the girl's side.
+
+"I find myself," he remarked ruminatively, "still a little troubled as
+to the precise amount of intelligence which our friend Mr. Crawshay
+might be said to possess. I wonder if I might ask; without your
+considering it a liberty, what he was talking to you about?"
+
+"About you," she answered.
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"Warning me against you."
+
+"Dear me! Aren't you terrified?"
+
+"I am not terrified," she replied, "but I think it best to tell you
+that he also has suspicions, absurd though it may seem, of Phillips
+and the doctor."
+
+"Why not the purser and captain, while he's about it?" Jocelyn said
+coolly. "Every one on this boat seems to have got the nerves. They
+searched my stateroom this morning."
+
+"Searched your stateroom?" she repeated. "Do you mean while you were
+out?"
+
+"Not a bit of it," he replied. "They dragged me up at half-past eight
+this morning--the captain, purser and a steward--fetched up my trunk
+and searched all my possessions."
+
+"What for?" she asked, with a sudden chill.
+
+He smiled at her reassuringly. "Something they didn't find!
+Something," he added, after a slight pause, "which they never
+will find!"
+
+Towards midday, Jocelyn Thew abandoned a game of shuffleboard, and,
+leaning against the side of the vessel, gazed steadily up at the
+wireless operating room. The lightnings had been playing around the
+mast for the last ten minutes without effect. He turned towards one of
+the ship's officers who was passing.
+
+"Anything gone wrong with the wireless?" he enquired.
+
+"The operator's ill, sir," was the prompt reply. "We've only one on
+board, as it happens, so we are rather in a mess."
+
+Jocelyn strolled away aft, considering the situation. He found
+Crawshay seated in an elaborate deck chair and immersed in a novel.
+
+"I hear the wireless has gone wrong," he remarked, stopping in front
+of him.
+
+Crawshay glanced up blandly.
+
+"What's that?" he demanded. "Wireless? Why, it's been going all the
+morning."
+
+"There has been no one there to take the messages, though. If anything
+happens to us, we shall be in a nice pickle."
+
+Crawshay shivered.
+
+"I wish you people wouldn't suggest such things," he said, a little
+testily. "I was just trying to get all thought of this most perilous
+voyage out of my mind, with the help of a novel here. From which do
+you seriously consider we have most to fear," he went on, "mines,
+submarines, or predatory vessels of the type of the _Blucher_?"
+
+"The latter, I should think," Jocelyn replied. "They say that
+submarines are scarcely venturing so far out just now."
+
+There was a brief silence. Jocelyn Thew was apparently engaged in
+trying to fit a cigarette into his holder.
+
+"Specially hard luck on you," he remarked presently, "if anything
+happened when you've taken so much trouble to get on board."
+
+"It would be exceedingly annoying," Crawshay declared, with vigour,
+"added to which I am not in a state of health to endure a voyage in a
+small boat. I have been this morning to look at our places, in case of
+accident. I find that I am expected to wield an oar long enough to
+break my back."
+
+Jocelyn Thew smiled. The other man's peevishness seemed too natural to
+be assumed.
+
+"I expect you'll be glad enough to do your bit, if anything does
+happen to us," he observed.
+
+"By-the-by," Crawshay asked, "I wonder what will become of that poor
+fellow downstairs--the man who is supposed to be dying, I mean--if
+trouble comes?"
+
+"I heard them discussing it at breakfast time," Jocelyn Thew replied.
+"I understand that he has asked specially to be allowed to remain
+where he is. There would of course be not the slightest chance of
+saving his life. The doctor who is with him--Gant, I think his name
+is--told us that anything in the shape of a rough sea, even, would
+mean the end of him. He quite understands this himself." Crawshay
+assented gravely.
+
+"It seems a little brutal but it is common sense," he declared. "In
+times of great stress, too, one becomes primitive, and the primitive
+instinct is for the strong to save himself. I am not ashamed to
+confess," he concluded, "that I have secured an extra lifebelt."
+
+Jocelyn glanced, for a moment scornfully down at the man who had now
+picked up his novel again and was busy reading. Crawshay represented
+so much the things that he despised in life. It was impossible to
+treat or consider him in any way as a rival to be feared. He passed
+down the deck and made his way below to the doctor's room. He found
+the latter in the act of starting off to see a patient.
+
+"I came around to ask after Robins, the young Marconi man," Jocelyn
+explained. "I hear that he was taken ill last night."
+
+The doctor looked at his questioner keenly.
+
+"That is so," he admitted.
+
+"What's wrong with him?"
+
+"I have not thoroughly diagnosed his complaint as yet," was the
+careful reply. "I can tell you for a certainty, though, that he will
+not be able to work for two or three days."
+
+"It seems very sudden," Jocelyn Thew persisted.
+
+"As a matter of fact, I had some slight acquaintance with him, and I
+always thought that he was a remarkably strong young fellow."
+
+The doctor, who had completed his preparations for departure, picked
+up his cap and politely showed his visitor out. "You wouldn't care,"
+the latter suggested, "to let me go down and have a look at him? I
+can't call myself a medical man, but I know something about sickness
+and I am quite interested in young Robins."
+
+"I don't think that I shall need a second opinion at present, thank
+you," the doctor rejoined, a little drily. "If you wish to see him
+later on, you must get permission from the captain. Good morning,
+Mr. Thew."
+
+Jocelyn Thew strolled thoughtfully away, found a retired spot upon the
+promenade deck behind a boat, lit a very black cigar, and, drawing his
+field-glasses from his pocket, searched the horizon carefully. There
+was no sign of any passing steamer, not even the faintest wisp of
+black smoke anywhere upon the horizon. It was Wednesday to-day, and
+they had left New York on Saturday. He drew a sheet of paper from his
+pocket and made a few calculations. It was the day and past the time
+upon which things were due to happen....
+
+The day wore on very much as most days do on an Atlantic voyage in
+early summer. The little handful of passengers, who seemed for the
+moment to have cast all anxieties to the winds, played shuffleboard
+and quoits, lunched with vigorous appetites, drank tea out on deck,
+and indulged in strenuous before-dinner promenades. The sun shone all
+day, the sea remained wonderfully calm. Not a trace of any other
+steamer was visible from morning until early nightfall, and Jocelyn
+Thew walked restlessly about with a grim look upon his face. At dinner
+time the captain hinted at fog, and looked doubtfully out of the
+open porthole at the oily-looking waste of waters.
+
+"Another night on the bridge for me, I think," he remarked.
+
+Jocelyn Thew leaned forward in his place.
+
+"By-the-by, Captain," he asked, "now that the shipping is so reduced,
+do you alter speed for fog?"
+
+The captain filled his glass from the jug of lemonade which, was
+always before him.
+
+"Do we alter our speed, eh?" he repeated. "You must remember," he went
+on, "that we have Miss Beverley on board. We couldn't afford to give
+Miss Beverley a fright."
+
+Jocelyn accepted the evasion with a slight bow. Katharine, who had
+come in to dine a little late and seemed graver than usual, smiled at
+the captain.
+
+"Am I the most precious thing on this steamer?" she asked.
+
+"Gallantry," the captain replied, "compels me to say yes!"
+
+"Only gallantry? Have we such a wonderful cargo, then?"
+
+"There are times," was the cautious reply, "when not even the captain
+knows exactly what he is carrying."
+
+"You remind me," Jocelyn Thew observed, "of a voyage I once made from
+Port Elizabeth to New York, with half-a-dozen I.D.B's on board, and as
+many detectives, watching them day and night."
+
+The captain nodded.
+
+"What happened?" he enquired.
+
+"Oh, the detectives arrested the lot of them, I think, got hold of
+them on the last day." The captain rose from his place.
+
+"Queer thing," he remarked, "but the law generally does come out on
+top."
+
+Jocelyn followed his example a few minutes later, and Katharine
+purposely joined him on the way out. She led her companion to the
+corner where her steamer chair had been placed, and motioned him to
+sit by her side. They were on the weather side of the ship, with a
+slight breeze in their faces and a canopy over their heads which
+deadened sound. She leaned a little forward.
+
+"Smoke, please." she begged. "I mean it--see."
+
+She lit a cigarette and he followed suit.
+
+"Not a cigar?"
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I keep them for my hard thinking times."
+
+"Then you were thinking very hard this morning?"
+
+"I was," he admitted.
+
+"And gazing very earnestly out of those field-glasses of yours."
+
+"Quite true."
+
+"Mr. Thew," she said abruptly, "it is my impression, although for some
+reason or other I am scarcely allowed to go near him, that Mr.
+Phillips is dying."
+
+"One knew, of course, that there was that risk," Jocelyn Thew reminded
+her.
+
+"I do not think that he can possibly live for twenty-four hours," she
+continued. "I was allowed to sit with him for a short time early this
+morning. He is beginning to wander in his mind, to speak of his wife
+and a sum of money." Jocelyn's fine eyebrows came a little
+closer together.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Nothing in his appearance or speech indicate the man of wealth or
+even of birth. I begin to wonder whether I know the whole truth about
+this frantic desire of his to reach England before he dies?"
+
+"I think," Jocelyn Thew said thoughtfully, "that you have been talking
+again to Mr. Crawshay."
+
+"Yes," she admitted, "and he has been warning me against you."
+
+"I suppose," Jocelyn ruminated, "the man has a certain amount of
+puppy-dog intelligence."
+
+"I do not understand Mr. Crawshay at all," she confessed. "My
+acquaintance with him before we met on this steamer was of the
+slightest, but his manner of coming certainly led one to believe that
+he was a man of courage and determination. Since then he has crawled
+about in an overcoat and rubber shoes, and groaned about his ailments
+until one feels inclined to laugh at him. Last night he was different
+again. He was entirely serious, and he spoke to me about you."
+
+"Do you need to be warned against me?" he asked grimly. "Have I ever
+sailed under false colours?"
+
+"Don't," she begged, looking at him with a little quiver of the lips
+and a wonderfully soft light in her eyes. "You have never deceived me
+in any way except, if at all, as regards this voyage. I made up my
+mind this evening that I would ask you, if you cared to tell me, to
+take me into your confidence about this man who is dying down below,
+and his strange journey. I need scarcely add that I should respect
+that confidence."
+
+"I am sorry," he answered. "You ask an impossibility."
+
+"Then there is some sort of conspiracy going on?" she persisted. "Let
+me ask you a straightforward question. Is it not true that you have
+made me an unknowing participator in an illegal act?"
+
+"It is," he admitted. "I was very sorry to have to do so but it was
+necessary. Without your assistance, I should never have been allowed
+to bring Phillips across the Atlantic."
+
+"What difference do I make?" she asked.
+
+"You lend an air of respectability and credibility to the whole
+thing," he told her. "You are a person of repute, of distinguished
+social position, and the object of a good deal of admiration in your
+own country. The doctor who accompanies you comes from your own
+hospital. No one would believe it possible that either of you could be
+concerned in any sort of conspiracy. If that ass Crawshay had not got
+on board, I am convinced that there would never have been a breath of
+suspicion."
+
+She shivered a little.
+
+"Is it quite kind to bring me into an affair of this sort?" she asked.
+
+"It is a world," he declared cruelly, "in which we fight always for
+our own hand or go under. I am fighting for mine, and if I have
+occasionally to sacrifice a friend as well as an enemy, I do not
+hesitate."
+
+"What has the world done to you," she demanded, "that you should speak
+so bitterly?" "Better not ask me that."
+
+"How will the man Phillips' death affect your plans?"
+
+"It will make very little difference either way," he assured her. "We
+rather expected him to die."
+
+"And you won't take me any further into your confidence?"
+
+"No further. Your task will be completed at Liverpool. So long as you
+leave this steamer in company with the doctor and the ambulance, if
+Phillips is still alive, you will be free to return home whenever
+you please."
+
+"Very well," she said. "You see, I accept my position. I shall go
+through with what I have promised, whatever Mr. Crawshay may say.
+Won't you in return treat me, if not as a confederate, as a friend?"
+
+He turned and looked at her, met the appealing glance of her soft eyes
+for a moment and looked suddenly away.
+
+"I do not belong to the ranks of those, Miss Beverley, from whom it is
+well for you to choose your friends."
+
+"But why should I not make my own choice?" she insisted. "I have
+always been my own mistress. I have lived with my own ideas, I have
+declined to be subject to any one's authority. I am an independent
+person. Can't you treat me as such?"
+
+"There are facts," he said, "which can never be ignored. You belong to
+the world of wealthy, gently born men and women who comprise what is
+called Society. I belong, and have belonged all my life, to a race of
+outcasts." "Don't!" she begged.
+
+"It is true," he repeated doggedly.
+
+"But what do you mean by outcasts?"
+
+"Criminals, if you like it better. I have broken the law more than
+once. There is an unexecuted warrant out against me at the present
+moment. You may even see me marched off this steamer at Liverpool
+between two policemen."
+
+"But why?" she asked passionately. "Why? What is the motive of it all?
+Is it money?"
+
+"I am not in need of money," he told her, "but I have a great and
+sacred use for all I can lay my fingers on. If I succeed in my present
+enterprise, I shall receive a hundred thousand pounds."
+
+"I value Jerry's life and future at more than that," she declared.
+"Will you make a fresh start, Mr. Jocelyn Thew, with twice that sum of
+money to your credit?"
+
+He shook his head, but there was a curious change creeping into his
+face. For the first time she saw how soft a man's dark-blue eyes may
+sometimes become. The slight trembling of his parted lips, too, seemed
+to unlock all the cruel, hard lines of his face. He had suddenly the
+appearance of a person of temperament--a poet, even a dreamer.
+
+"I could not take money from you, Miss Beverley," he said, "or from
+any other woman in the world."
+
+"Upon no conditions?" she whispered softly.
+
+"Upon no conditions," he repeated.
+
+The breeze had dropped, and twilight had followed swiftly upon the
+misty sunset. There was something a little ghostly about the light in
+which they sat. "I am stifled," she declared abruptly. "Come
+and walk."
+
+They paced up and down the deck once or twice in silence. Then he
+paused as they drew near their chairs.
+
+"Miss Beverley," he said, "in case this should be the last time that
+we talk confidentially--so that we may put a seal, in fact, upon the
+subject of which we have spoken to-night--I would like to tell you
+that you have made me feel, during this last half-hour, an emotion
+which I have not felt for many years. And I want to tell you this. I
+am a lawbreaker. When I told you that there was a warrant out against
+me at the present moment, I told you the truth. The charge against me
+is a true one, and the penalty is one I shall never pay. I must go on
+to the end, and I shall do so because I have a driving impulse behind,
+a hate which only action can soothe. But all my sins have been against
+men and the doings of men. You will understand me, will you not, when
+I say that I can neither take your money, nor accept your friendship
+after this voyage is over? You, on your side, can remember that you
+have paid a debt."
+
+She sank a little wearily into her chair and looked out through the
+gathering mists. It seemed part of her fancy that they gathered him
+in, for she heard no sound of retreating footsteps. Yet when she spoke
+his name, a few moments later, she found that she was alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+Throughout the night reigned an almost sepulchral silence, and when
+the morning broke, the _City of Boston_, at a scarcely reduced speed,
+was ploughing her way through great banks of white fog. The decks, the
+promenade rails, every exposed part of the steamer, were glistening
+with wet. Up on the bridge, three officers besides the captain stood
+with eyes fixed in grim concentration upon the dense curtains of mist
+which seemed to shut them off altogether from the outer world. Jocelyn
+Thew and Crawshay met in the companionway, a few minutes after
+breakfast.
+
+"I can see no object in the disuse of the hooter," Crawshay declared
+querulously. "Nothing at sea could be worse than a collision. We are
+simply taking our lives in our hands, tearing along like this at
+sixteen knots an hour."
+
+"Isn't there supposed to be a German raider out?" the other enquired.
+
+"I think it is exceedingly doubtful whether there is really one in the
+Atlantic at all. The English gunboats patrol these seas. Besides, we
+are armed ourselves, and she wouldn't be likely to tackle us."
+
+Jocelyn Thew had leaned a little forward. He was listening intently.
+At the same time, one of the figures upon the bridge, his hand to his
+ear, turned in the same direction.
+
+"There's some one who doesn't mind letting their whereabouts be
+known," he whispered, after a moment's pause. "Can't you hear
+a hooter?"
+
+Crawshay listened but shook his head.
+
+"Can't hear a thing," he declared laconically. "I've a cold in my head
+coming on, and it always affects my hearing."
+
+Jocelyn Thew stepped on tiptoe across the deck as far as the rail and
+returned in a few minutes.
+
+"There's a steamer calling, away on the starboard bow," he announced.
+"She seems to be getting nearer, too. I wonder we don't alter
+our course."
+
+"Well, I suppose it's the captain's business whether he chooses to
+answer or not," Crawshay remarked. "I shall go down to my cabin. This
+gazing at nothing gets on my nerves."
+
+Jocelyn Thew returned to his damp vigil. Leaning over the wet wooden
+rail, he drew a little diagram on the back of an envelope and worked
+out some figures. Then he listened once more, the slight frown upon
+his forehead deepening. Finally he tore up his sketch and made his way
+to the doctor's room. The doctor was seated at his desk and glanced up
+enquiringly as his visitor entered.
+
+"I just looked in to see how young Robins was getting on," Jocelyn
+explained.
+
+"I am afraid he is in rather a bad way," was the grave reply.
+
+"What is the nature of his illness?"
+
+The doctor shrugged his shoulders. His manner became a little vague.
+
+"I must remind you, Mr. Thew," he said, "that a doctor is not always
+at liberty to discuss the ailments of his patients. On board ship
+this custom becomes more, even, than mere etiquette. It is, in fact,
+against the regulations of the company for us to discuss the maladies
+of any passenger upon the steamer."
+
+"I recognise the truth of all that you say," Jocelyn Thew agreed, "but
+it happens that I know the young man and his people. Naturally,
+therefore, I take an interest in him, and I am sure they would think
+it strange if, travelling upon the same steamer, I did not make these
+very ordinary enquiries."
+
+"You know his people, do you?" the doctor repeated. "Where does he
+come from, Mr. Thew?"
+
+"Somewhere over New Jersey way," was the glib reply, "but I used to
+meet his father often in New York. There can be no mystery about his
+illness, can there, doctor--no reason why I should not go and
+see him?"
+
+"I have placed the young man in quarantine," was the brief
+explanation, "and until he is released no one can go near him."
+
+"Something catching, eh?"
+
+"Something that might turn out to be catching."
+
+Jocelyn Thew shrugged his shoulders and accepted what amounted almost
+to a little nod of dismissal. He ascended the staircase thoughtfully
+and came face to face with Katharine Beverley, issuing from the music
+room. She greeted him with a little exclamation of relief.
+
+"Mr. Thew," she exclaimed, "I have been looking for you everywhere.
+Doctor Gant thinks," she added, lowering her voice, "that if you wish
+to see his patient alive, you had better come at once." "There is a
+change in his condition, then?"
+
+"Yes," she told him gravely.
+
+He stood for a moment thinking rapidly. The girl shivered a little as
+she watched the change in his face. Her hospital training had not
+lessened her awe and sympathy in the face of death, and it was so
+entirely obvious that Jocelyn Thew was considering only what influence
+upon his plans this event might have. Finally he turned and descended
+the stairs by her side.
+
+"I am not at all sure that it is wise of me to come," he said.
+"However, if he is asking for me I suppose I had better."
+
+They made their way into the commodious stateroom upon the saloon
+deck, which had been secured for the sick man. He lay upon a small
+hospital bed, nothing of him visible save his haggard face, with its
+ill-grown beard. His eyes were watching the door, and he showed some
+signs of gratification at Jocelyn's entrance. Gant, who was standing
+over the bed, turned apologetically towards the latter.
+
+"It's the money," he whispered. "He is worrying about that. I was
+obliged to send for you. He called out your name just now, and the
+ship's doctor was hanging around."
+
+The newcomer drew a stool to the side of the bed, opened a pocketbook
+and counted out a great wad of notes. The dying man watched him with
+every appearance of interest.
+
+"Five thousand dollars," the former said at last. "That should bring
+in about eleven hundred and fifty pounds. Now watch me, Phillips."
+
+He took an envelope from his pocket, thrust the notes inside, gummed
+down the flap, and, drawing a fountain pen from his pocket, wrote an
+address. The dying man watched him and nodded feebly.
+
+"These," Jocelyn continued, "are for your wife. The packet shall be
+delivered to her within twelve hours of our landing in Liverpool. You
+can keep it under your pillow and hand it over to Miss Beverley here.
+You trust her?"
+
+The man on the bed nodded feebly and turned slightly towards
+Katharine. She bent over him.
+
+"I shall see myself," she promised, "that the money is properly
+delivered."
+
+Phillips smiled and closed his eyes. It was obvious that he had no
+more to say. Jocelyn Thew stole softly out, followed, a moment later,
+by Katharine.
+
+"The doctor thinks I am better away," she whispered. "He won't speak
+again. Poor fellow!"
+
+Jocelyn stepped softly up the stairs and drew a little breath of
+relief as they reached the promenade deck without meeting any one.
+Both seemed to feel the desire for fresh air, and they stepped outside
+for a moment. There were tears in Katharine's eyes.
+
+"Of course," she said, a little timidly, "I don't understand this at
+all, but it is terribly tragic. Do you think that he would have lived
+if he had not undertaken the journey?"
+
+"It was absolutely impossible," her companion assured her. "He was a
+dying man from the moment the operation was finished."
+
+"Will he be buried at sea?"
+
+"I think not. He was exceedingly anxious to be buried at his home near
+Chester. It isn't a pleasant thing to talk about," Jocelyn went on,
+"but they brought his coffin on board with him. It's lying in the
+companionway now, covered over with a rug."
+
+She shivered.
+
+"It's a horrible day altogether," she declared, looking out into the
+seemingly endless banks of mist.
+
+"Entirely my opinion, Miss Beverley," a voice said in her ear. "I find
+it most depressing--and unhealthy. And listen.--Do you hear that?"
+
+They all listened intently. Again they could hear the hooting of a
+steamer in the distance.
+
+"Between ourselves," Crawshay went on confidentially, "the captain
+seems to me rather worried. That steamer has been following us for
+hours. She is evidently waiting for the fog to lift, to see who
+we are."
+
+"How does she know about us?" Katharine asked. "We haven't blown our
+hooter once."
+
+"We don't need to," was the fractious reply. "That's where we are
+being over-careful. She can hear our engines distinctly."
+
+"Who does the captain think she is, then?"
+
+Crawshay's voice was dropped to a mysterious pitch, but though he
+leaned towards the girl, his eyes were fixed upon her companion.
+
+"He doesn't go as far as to express a definite opinion, but he thinks
+that it might be that German raider--the _Blucher_, isn't it? She can
+steal about quite safely in the fog, and she can tell by the beat of
+the engines whether she is near a man-of-war or not."
+
+Not a muscle of Jocelyn's face twitched, but there was a momentary
+gleam in his eyes of which Crawshay took swift note. He glanced aft to
+where the two seamen were standing by the side of their guns.
+
+"If it really is the German raider," he remarked, "they might as well
+fire off a popgun as that thing. She is supposed to be armed with four
+six-inch guns and two torpedo tubes."
+
+Crawshay nodded.
+
+"So I told the captain. We might have a go at a submarine, but the
+raider would sink us in two minutes if we tried to tackle her. What a
+beastly voyage this is!" he went on, in a depressed tone. "I can't get
+over the fact that I risked my life to get on board, too."
+
+Jocelyn Thew, with a little word of excuse, had swung around and
+disappeared. Katharine looked at her companion curiously.
+
+"Do you believe that it really is the raider, Mr. Crawshay?" she
+enquired.
+
+He hesitated. In Jocelyn's absence his manner seemed to undergo some
+subtle change, his tone to become crisper and less querulous.
+
+"We had some reason to hope," he said cautiously, "that she was on a
+different course. It is just possible, however, that in changing it
+she might have struck this bank of fog and preferred to hang about
+for a time."
+
+"What will happen if she finds us?"
+
+"That depends entirely upon circumstances."
+
+"I have an idea," Katharine continued, "that you know more about this
+matter than you feel inclined to divulge."
+
+"Perhaps," he admitted. "Nowadays, every one has to learn discretion."
+
+"Is it necessary with me?" "It is necessary with any friend of Mr.
+Jocelyn Thew," he told her didactically.
+
+"What a suspicious person you are!" she exclaimed, a little
+scornfully. "You are just like all your countrymen. You get hold of an
+idea and nothing can shake it. Mr. Jocelyn Thew, I dare say, possesses
+a past. I know for a fact that he has been engaged in all sorts of
+adventures during his life. But--at your instigation, I suppose--they
+have already searched his person, his stateroom, and every article of
+luggage he has. After that, why not leave him alone?"
+
+"Because he is an extremely clever person."
+
+"Then you are not satisfied yet?"
+
+"Not yet."
+
+"Am I, may I ask, under suspicion?" she enquired, with faint sarcasm.
+
+"I should not like to say," he replied glibly, "that you were
+altogether free from it."
+
+She laughed heartily.
+
+"I should not worry about the army if I were you," she advised. "I am
+quite sure that secret-service work is the natural outlet for
+your talents."
+
+"I shouldn't be surprised," he confided, "if headquarters didn't
+insist upon my taking it up permanently. It will depend a little, of
+course, upon what success I have during this voyage."
+
+She laughed in his face and turned away.
+
+"I will tell you what I find so interesting about you, Mr. Crawshay,"
+she said. "You must be either very much cleverer than you seem, or
+very much more foolish. You keep me continually guessing as to
+which it is."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+Towards six o'clock that evening, without any apparent change in the
+situation, Captain Jones descended from the bridge and signalled to
+Crawshay, whom he passed on the deck, to follow him into his room. The
+great ship was still going at full speed through a sea which was as
+smooth as glass.
+
+"Getting out of it, aren't we?" Crawshay enquired.
+
+The captain nodded. His hair and beard were soaked with moisture, and
+there were beads of wet all over his face. Otherwise he seemed little
+the worse for his long vigil. In his eyes, however, was a new anxiety.
+
+"Another five miles," he confided, "should see us in clear weather."
+
+"Steamer's still following us, isn't she?"
+
+"Sticking to us like a leech," was the terse reply. "She is not out of
+any American port. She must have just picked us up. She isn't any
+ordinary cargo steamer, either, or she couldn't make the speed."
+
+"I've worked it out by your chart," Crawshay declared, "and it might
+very well be the Blucher. I don't think I made the altered course wide
+enough, and she might very well have been hanging about a bit when she
+struck the fog and heard our engines."
+
+The captain lit a pipe. "I am not in the habit, as you may imagine,
+of discussing the conduct of my ship with any one, Mr. Crawshay," he
+said, "but you come to me with very absolute credentials, and it's
+rather a comfort to have some one standing by with whom one can share
+the responsibility. You see my couple of guns? They are about as
+useful as catapults against the _Blucher_, whereas, on the other hand,
+she could sink us easily with a couple of volleys."
+
+"Just so," Crawshay agreed. "What about speed, Captain?"
+
+"If our reports are trustworthy, we might be able to squeeze out one
+more knot than she can do," was the doubtful reply, "but, you see,
+she'll follow us out of this last bank of fog practically within rifle
+range. I've altered my course three or four times so as to get a
+start, but she hangs on like grim death. That's what makes me so sure
+that it's the _Blucher_."
+
+"Want my advice?" Crawshay asked.
+
+"That's the idea," the captain acquiesced.
+
+"Stoke her up, then, and drive full speed ahead. Take no notice of any
+signals. Make for home with the last ounce you can squeeze out
+of her."
+
+"That's all very well," Captain Jones observed, "but there will be at
+least half an hour during which we shall be within effective range.
+She might sink us a dozen times over."
+
+"Yes, but I don't think she will."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"If the theory upon which I started this wild-goose chase is correct,"
+Crawshay explained, "there is something on board this ship infinitely
+more valuable than the ship itself to Germany. That is why I
+think that she will strain every nerve to try and capture you, of
+course, but she will never sink you, because if she did she would lose
+everything her Secret Service have worked for in Germany ever since,
+and even before the commencement of the war."
+
+"It's an idea," the captain admitted, with a gleam in his eyes.
+
+"It's common sense," Crawshay urged. "When I left Halifax, I was ready
+to take twenty-five to one that we'd been sold. I wouldn't mind laying
+twenty-five to one now that what we are in search of is somewhere on
+board this steamer. If that is so, the _Blucher_ will never dare to
+sink you, because there will still remain the chance of the person on
+board who is in charge of the documents getting away with them at the
+other end, whereas down at the bottom of the Atlantic they would be of
+no use to any one."
+
+"I see your point of view," the other agreed.
+
+"Then you'd better take my tip," Crawshay continued. "There isn't a
+passenger on board who didn't know the risk they were running when
+they started, and I'm sure no one will blame you for not surrendering
+your ship like a dummy directly you're asked. They're a pretty
+sporting lot in the saloon, you know. All those newspaper men are real
+good fellows."
+
+The captain's face brightened.
+
+"Next to fighting her," he soliloquised, stroking his beard,--
+
+"The idea of fighting her is ridiculous," Crawshay interrupted. "Look
+here, you haven't any time to lose. Send to the engineer and let him
+give it to them straight down below. I'll give a tenner apiece to the
+stokers, if we get clear, and if my advice turns out wrong, I'll see
+you through it, anyway."
+
+"We can leg it at a trifle over nineteen knots," Captain Jones
+declared, as he picked up his cap, "and, anyway, anything's better
+than having one of those short-haired, smooth-tongued, blustering
+Germans on board."
+
+He hurried off, and Crawshay followed him on deck to watch
+developments. Already, through what seemed to be an opening in the
+walls of fog, there was a vision in front of clear blue sea on which a
+still concealed sun was shining. Soon they passed out into a new
+temperature of pleasant warmth, with a skyline ahead, hard and clear.
+The passengers came crowding on deck. Every one leaned over the
+starboard rail, looking towards the place whence the sound of the
+hooting was still proceeding. Suddenly a steamer crept out of the fog
+mountain and drew clear, barely half a mile away. The first glimpse at
+her was final. She had cast off all disguise. Her false forecastle was
+thrown back, and the sun glittered upon three exceedingly
+formidable-looking guns, trained upon the _City of Boston_. A row of
+signals, already hoisted, were fluttering from her mast.
+
+"It's the _Blucher_, by God!" Sam West muttered.
+
+"We're nabbed!" his little friend groaned.
+
+"Wonder what they'll do with us."
+
+Every eye was upturned now to the mast for the answering signals. To
+the universal surprise, none were hoisted. The captain stood upon the
+bridge with his glass focussed upon the raider. He gave no orders,
+only the black smoke was beginning to belch now from the funnels, and
+little pieces of smut and burning coal blew down the deck. Jocelyn
+Thew, who was standing a little apart, frowned to himself. He had seen
+Crawshay and the captain come out of the latter's cabin together.
+
+The blue lightnings were playing now unchecked about the top of the
+Marconi room. Another more imperative signal flew from the pirate
+ship. A minute later there was a puff of white smoke, a loud report,
+and a shell burst in the sea, fifty yards ahead. Crawshay edged up to
+where Jocelyn Thew was standing.
+
+"This is a damned unpleasant affair," he said.
+
+"It is," was the grim reply.
+
+"You know it's the _Blucher_?"
+
+"No doubt about that."
+
+"What on earth are we up to?" Crawshay continued, in a dissatisfied
+tone. "We haven't even replied to her signals."
+
+"It appears to me," Jocelyn Thew pronounced irritably, "that we are
+going to try and get away. I never heard of such lunacy. They can blow
+us to pieces if they want to."
+
+Crawshay shivered.
+
+"I think," he protested, "that some one ought to remonstrate with the
+captain. Look, there's another shell coming! Damned ugly things!"
+
+There was another puff of white smoke, and this time the projectile
+fell within a steamer's length of them, sending a great fountain of
+water into the air. "They are giving us plenty of warning," Jocelyn
+Thew observed coolly. "I suppose we shall get the next one amidships."
+
+"I find it most upsetting," his companion declared. "I am going down
+to the cabin to get my lifebelt."
+
+He turned away. Presently there was another line of signals, more
+shots, some across the bows of the steamer, some right over her, a few
+aft. Nevertheless, the _City of Boston_ stood on her course, and the
+distance between the two steamers gradually widened. Katharine, who
+had come up on deck, stood by Jocelyn Thew's side.
+
+"Is this really the way that they shoot," she asked, "or aren't they
+trying to hit us?"
+
+"They are not trying," he told her. "If they were, every shot they
+fired at this range would be sufficient to send us to the bottom."
+
+"Why aren't they trying?" she persisted.
+
+"There's a reason for that, which I can't at the moment explain," was
+the gloomy reply. "They want to capture us, not sink us! What I can't
+understand, though, is how the captain here found that out."
+
+"How is it that you are so well-informed?" Katharine asked curiously.
+
+"You had better not enquire, Miss Beverley. It's just as well not to
+know too much of these things. Here's Mr. Crawshay," he added.
+"Perhaps he'll tell you."
+
+Crawshay appeared, hugging his lifebelt, on which he seated himself
+gingerly.
+
+"Can't imagine what the captain's up to," he complained. "A chap who
+understands those little flags has just told me that they've
+threatened to blow us to pieces if we go on.--Here comes another
+shell!" he groaned. "Two to one they've got us this time!--Ugh!"
+
+They all ducked to avoid a shower of spray. When they stood upright
+again, Katharine studied the newcomer for a minute critically. There
+was a certain air of strain about most of the passengers. Even Jocelyn
+Thew's firm hand had trembled, a moment ago, as he had lowered his
+glasses. Crawshay, seated upon his lifebelt, with a mackintosh
+buttoned around him, his eyeglass firmly adjusted, his mouth
+querulous, was not exactly an impressive-looking object. Yet
+she wondered.
+
+"Give me your hand," she asked suddenly.
+
+He obeyed at once. The fingers were cool and firm.
+
+"Why do you pretend to be afraid?" she demanded. "You aren't in the
+least."
+
+"Amateur theatricals," he replied tersely, "coupled with a certain
+amount of self-control. I am a cool-tempered fellow at most
+times.--Jove, this one's meant for us, I believe!"
+
+They all ducked instinctively. The shell, however, fell short.
+Crawshay measured the distance between the two steamers with his eyes.
+
+"Dashed if I don't believe we're giving them the slip!" he exclaimed.
+"I wonder why in thunder they're letting us off like this! The captain
+must have known something."
+
+Jocelyn Thew turned around and looked reflectively at the speaker. For
+a single moment Crawshay's muscles tingled with the apprehension
+of danger. There was a smouldering light in the other's eyes, such a
+light as might gleam in the tiger's eyes before his spring. Crawshay's
+hand slipped to his hip pocket. So for a moment they remained. Then
+Jocelyn Thew shrugged his shoulders, and the tense moment was past.
+
+"There seems to be some one on this ship," he said quietly, "who knows
+more than is good for him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+The _City of Boston_ passed through the danger zone in safety, and
+dropped anchor in the Mersey only a few hours later than the time of
+her expected arrival. Towards the close of a somewhat uproarious
+dinner, during which many bottles of champagne were emptied to various
+toasts, Captain Jones quite unexpectedly entered the saloon, and,
+waving his hand in response to the cheers which greeted him, made his
+way to his usual table, from which he addressed the little company.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "I have an announcement to make to
+which I beg you will listen with patience. Both the English and the
+American police, whether with reason or not, as we may presently
+determine, have come to the conclusion that a large number of very
+important documents, collected in America by the agents of a foreign
+power, have been smuggled across the Atlantic upon this ship, in the
+hope that they may eventually reach Germany. In a quarter of an hour's
+time, a number of plainclothes policemen will be on board. I am going
+to ask you, as loyal British and American subjects, to subject
+yourselves, without resistance or complaint, to any search which they
+may choose to make. I may add that my own person, luggage and cabin
+will be the first object of their attention." The captain, having
+delivered his address, left the saloon again amidst a little buzz of
+voices. There had probably never been a voyage across the Atlantic in
+which a matter of forty passengers had been treated to so many rumours
+and whispers of strange happenings. Sam West got up and spoke a few
+words, counselling the ready assent of every one there to submit to
+anything that was thought necessary. He briefly commented upon their
+unexplained but fortuitous escape from the raider, and heaped
+congratulations upon their captain. Very soon after he had resumed his
+seat, the shrill whistle of a tug alongside indicated the arrival of
+visitors. A steward passed back and forth amongst the passengers with
+a universal request--all were asked to repair to their staterooms.
+Twenty-seven exceedingly alert-looking men thereupon commenced
+their task.
+
+Seated upon the couch in her room, with a cup of coffee by her side
+and a cigarette between her lips, Katharine listened to the
+conversation which passed in the opposite room, the one which had been
+tenanted by Phillips. For some reason, the end of the voyage, instead
+of bringing her the relief which she had expected, had only increased
+her nervous excitement. She was filled with an extraordinary
+prescience of some coming crisis. She found herself trembling as she
+listened to Doctor Gant's harsh voice and the smooth accents of his
+interlocutor.
+
+"Well, that completes our search of your belongings, Doctor Gant," the
+latter's voice observed. "Now I want to ask a few questions with
+reference to the Mr. Phillips who I understand died the day before
+yesterday under your charge." "That is so," Doctor Gant agreed. "He
+had no luggage, as we only made up our minds to undertake the journey
+with him at the last moment. The few oddments he used on the voyage,
+we burned."
+
+"And the body, I understand,--"
+
+"You can examine it at once, if you will," the doctor interrupted. "We
+have purposely left the coffin lid only partly screwed down. I should
+like to say, however, that before arranging the deceased for burial, I
+asked the ship's doctor to make an examination with me of the coffin
+and the garments which I used. He signed the certificate, and he will
+be ready to answer any questions."
+
+"That seems entirely satisfactory," the detective confessed. "I will
+just have the coffin lid off for a few moments, and will see the
+doctor before I leave the ship."
+
+The men left the room together and were absent some ten minutes.
+Presently the detective returned to Katharine's room, and with him
+came Crawshay. Katharine had discarded the nurse's costume which she
+had usually worn on board ship, and was wearing the black tailor-made
+suit in which she had expected to land. In the dim light, her pallor
+and nervous condition almost startled Crawshay.
+
+"You will forgive my intrusion," he said. "I have just been explaining
+your presence here to Mr. Brightman, the detective, and I don't think
+he will trouble you for more than a few minutes."
+
+"Please treat me exactly as the others," she begged.
+
+The search proceeded for a few moments in silence. Then the detective
+looked up from the dressing case which he was examining. In his hand
+he held the envelope addressed to Mrs. Phillips.
+
+"Do you mind telling me what this is, Miss Beverley?" he asked.
+
+"It is a roll of bills," she replied, "that belonged to Mr. Phillips.
+I promised to see them handed over to his wife."
+
+Brightman glanced at the address and balanced the envelope on the palm
+of his hand.
+
+"It is against the law," he told her, "for a passenger to be the
+bearer of any sealed letter."
+
+Katharine shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"I am very sorry," she said, "but the packet which you have did not
+come from America at all. It was sealed up on board this ship at the
+time when I accepted the charge of its delivery. There is no letter or
+communication of any sort inside."
+
+"You will not object," the detective enquired, "to my opening it?"
+
+She frowned impatiently.
+
+"I can assure you," she repeated, "that I saw the notes put inside an
+empty envelope. Mr. Crawshay will tell you that my word is to be
+relied upon."
+
+"Implicitly, Miss Beverley," Crawshay pronounced emphatically, "but
+under the circumstances I think no harm would be done if you allowed
+our friend just to glance inside. The notes can easily be sealed up in
+another envelope."
+
+"Just as you like," she acquiesced coolly. "You will find nothing but
+bills there."
+
+Brightman tore open the envelope and glanced inside as though he did
+not intend further to disturb it. Suddenly his face changed. He shook
+out the contents upon the little table. They all three looked at the
+pile of papers with varying expressions. In Katharine's face there was
+nothing but blank bewilderment, in Crawshay's something of horror, in
+the detective's a faint gleam of triumph. He pressed his finger down
+on the heading of the first sheet of paper.
+
+"I am not much of a German scholar," he observed. "How do you
+translate that, Mr. Crawshay?"
+
+Crawshay was silent for several moments. Then in a perfectly
+mechanical tone he read out the heading:
+
+"'List of our agents in New York and district who may be absolutely
+trusted for any enterprise.'"
+
+There was another dead silence, a silence, on Katharine's part, of
+complete mental paralysis. Crawshay's face had lost all its smooth
+petulance. He was like a man who had received a blow.
+
+"But I don't understand," Katharine faltered at last. "That packet has
+not been out of my possession, and I saw the notes put into it."
+
+"By whom?" Crawshay demanded.
+
+"By Mr. Phillips," she declared steadfastly, "by Mr. Phillips and
+Doctor Gant together."
+
+The detective turned the envelope over in his hand.
+
+"The bills seem to have disappeared," he observed.
+
+"They were in that envelope," Katharine persisted. "I have never seen
+those papers before in my life."
+
+Brightman's face remained immovable. One by one he slipped the papers
+back into the envelope, thrust them into his breast pocket, and,
+turning round, locked the door.
+
+"You must forgive me if the rest of our investigations may seem
+unnecessarily severe, Miss Beverley," he said.
+
+Katharine sank back upon the sofa. She was utterly bewildered by the
+events of the last few minutes. The search of her belongings was now
+being conducted with ruthless persistence. Her head was buried in her
+hands. She did not even glance at the contents of her trunk, which
+were now overflowing the room. Suddenly she was conscious of another
+pause in the proceedings, a half-spoken exclamation from the
+detective. She looked up. From within the folds of an evening gown he
+had withdrawn a small, official-looking dispatch box of black tin,
+tied with red tape, and with great seals hanging from either end.
+
+"What is this?" he asked.
+
+Katharine stared at it with wide-open eyes.
+
+"I have never seen it before," she declared.
+
+There was another painful, significant silence. Crawshay bent forward
+and examined the seals through his glass.
+
+"This," he announced presently, "is the official seal of a neutral
+Embassy. You see how the packet is addressed?"
+
+"I see," the detective admitted, "but, considering the way in which we
+have found it, you are not suggesting, I hope, that we should not
+open it?"
+
+"Opened it certainly must be," Crawshay admitted, "but not by us in
+this manner. When you have finished your search, I should be glad if
+you will bring both packets with you to the captain's room."
+
+Brightman silently resumed his labours. Nothing further, however, was
+found. The two men stood up together.
+
+"Miss Beverley," Brightman began gravely,--
+
+Crawshay laid his hand upon the man's arm.
+
+"Wait for a moment," he begged. "I wish to have a few words with you
+outside. We shall be back before long, Miss Beverley."
+
+The two men disappeared. Katharine, with a sinking of the heart, heard
+the key turn on the outside of her stateroom. She watched the lock
+slip into its place with an indescribable sense of humiliation. She
+had been guilty--of what?
+
+She lost count of time, but it was certain that only a few minutes
+could have passed before a strange thing happened. The sight of that
+lock, which seemed somehow to shut her off from the world of
+reasonable, honest men and women, had fascinated her. She was sitting
+watching it, her chin resting upon her hands, something of the horror
+still in her eyes, when without sound, or any visible explanation, she
+saw it glide back to its place. The door was opened and closed.
+Jocelyn Thew was standing in her stateroom.
+
+"You?" she exclaimed.
+
+"I am not disappointed in you, I am sure," he said softly. "You will
+keep still. You will not say a word. I have risked the whole success
+of a great enterprise to come and say these few words to you. I am
+ashamed and sorry for what you are suffering, but I want to tell you
+this. Nothing serious will happen--nothing serious can happen to you.
+Everything is not as it seems. Will you believe that? Look at me. Will
+you believe that?"
+
+She raised her eyes. Once more there was that change in his face which
+had seemed so wonderful to her. The blue of his eyes was soft, his
+mouth almost tremulous. She answered him almost as though mesmerised.
+
+"I will believe it," she promised.
+
+As silently and mysteriously as he had come, he turned and left her.
+She watched the latch. She saw the lock creep silently once more into
+its place. She heard no movement outside, but Jocelyn Thew had gone.
+
+During the few remaining minutes of her solitude, Katharine felt a
+curious change in the atmosphere of the little disordered stateroom,
+in her own dazed and bruised feelings. She seemed somehow to be
+playing a part in a little drama which had nothing to do with real
+life. All her fears had vanished. She rose from her place, smoothed
+her disordered hair carefully, bathed her temples with eau-de-cologne,
+adjusted her hat and veil, and, turning on the reading lamp, opened a
+novel. She actually managed to read a couple of pages before there was
+a knock at the door and the two men reappeared. She laid down her book
+and greeted them quite coolly.
+
+"Well, have you come to pronounce sentence upon me?" she asked.
+
+"Our authority scarcely goes so far," Brightman replied. "I am going
+on shore now, Miss Beverley, to fetch the consul of the country to
+which this packet is addressed. It will be opened in his presence. In
+the meantime, Mr. Crawshay has given his parole for you. You will
+therefore be free of the ship, but it will be, I am afraid, my duty to
+ask you to come with me to the police station for a further
+examination, on my return."
+
+"I am sure I shall like to come very much," she said sweetly, "but if
+you go on asking me questions forever, I am afraid you won't come any
+nearer solving the problem of how that box got into my trunk, or how
+those bills got changed into those queer-looking little slips of
+papers. However, that of course is your affair."
+
+The detective departed with a stiff bow. Crawshay, however, lingered.
+
+"Aren't you going with your friend?" she asked him.
+
+He ignored the question.
+
+"Miss Beverley," he said, "you will forgive me saying that I find the
+present position exceedingly painful."
+
+"Why?" she demanded. "I don't see how you are suffering by it."
+
+"It was at my instigation," he went on, "that suspicion was first
+directed against your travelling companions. I am convinced that the
+first idea was to get these documents off the ship upon the person of
+Phillips, if alive, or in his coffin if dead. The instigators of this
+abominable conspiracy have taken fright and have made you their
+victim. Certainly," he went on, "it was a shrewd idea. I myself
+suggested to Brightman that your things might remain undisturbed. But
+for the finding of that envelope, your trunk would certainly not have
+been opened. You see the position I have placed myself in. I am driven
+to ask you a question. Did you know of the presence of those papers
+and dispatch box amongst your belongings?"
+
+"I had no idea of it," she answered fervently.
+
+He drew a little breath of relief.
+
+"You realise, of course," he went on, "that there is only one man who
+could have placed them there?"
+
+"And who is that?" she enquired.
+
+"Jocelyn Thew."
+
+"And why do you single him out?"
+
+"Because," Crawshay told her patiently, "we had evidence in America to
+show that he was working with our enemies. It is true that he has not
+been associated to any extent with the German espionage system in
+America, but he has been well-known always as a reckless adventurer,
+ready to sell his life in any doubtful cause, so long as it promised
+excitement and profit. It was known to us that he had come into touch
+with a certain man in Washington who has been looking after the
+interests of his country in America. It was to shadow Jocelyn Thew
+that I came on this steamer. His friends cleverly fooled Hobson and
+me, and landed us in Chicago too late, as they thought, to catch the
+boat. That is why I made that somewhat melodramatic journey after you
+on the seaplane. Do please consider this matter reasonably, Miss
+Beverley. It was perfectly easy for him to slip across and place these
+things in your luggage as soon as he found that his original scheme
+was likely to go wrong. You were the one person on the steamer whom
+he reckoned would be safe from suspicion. You were part of his plot
+from the very first, and no more than that."
+
+"I cannot believe this," she said slowly.
+
+Crawshay's face darkened.
+
+"It is no business of mine, Miss Beverley," he declared, "but if you
+will forgive my saying so, you must be infatuated by this man. The
+evidence is perfectly clear. You are a prominent citizeness of a great
+country, and you have been made an accessory to an act of treason
+against that country. Yet, with plain facts in my hands, it seems
+impossible for me to shake your faith in this person. What is the
+reason of it? What hold had he upon you that he should have induced
+you to leave your work and your home and betray your country?"
+
+"He has no hold upon me at all," she replied indignantly. "Since you
+are so persistent, I will tell you the truth. I once saw him do a
+splendid thing, a deed which saved me from great unhappiness."
+
+"There we have it then at last!" Crawshay exclaimed eagerly. "You are
+under obligations to him."
+
+"I certainly am," she acknowledged.
+
+"And he has taken advantage of it," Crawshay continued, "to make you
+his tool."
+
+"Whatever he has done," she replied, "rests between Jocelyn Thew and
+me. I am not in the least disposed to excuse myself or to beg for
+mercy from you. If you represent the law, directly or indirectly, I do
+not ask for any favours. I shall be perfectly ready to go to your
+police station whenever I am sent for." There was a knock at the
+door. They both turned around. In reply to Katharine's mechanical
+"Come in," Jocelyn Thew entered.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said, "was I mistaken or did I hear my name?"
+
+"We were speaking of you," Crawshay admitted, turning towards him,
+"but I do not think that either Miss Beverley or I have anything to
+say to you at the moment."
+
+"That's rather a pity," was the cool reply, "because you may not see
+me again. I was looking for Miss Beverley, in fact, to say good-by. We
+are docking in half an hour, and those who have been searched can go
+on shore, if they like to leave their hold luggage. As I have been
+searched twice in the most thorough and effective fashion, I have my
+pass out."
+
+"You mean that you are going away altogether to-night?" Katharine
+exclaimed.
+
+"Only so far as the Adelphi," he told her. "I have some friends to see
+who live near Liverpool, so I shall probably stay there for two or
+three days."
+
+"I was coming to look for you on deck presently," Crawshay intervened,
+"but if your departure is so imminent, I will say what I have to say
+to you here."
+
+"That would seem advisable," Jocelyn Thew agreed.
+
+"I think it is only right that you should know, sir," Crawshay
+continued, "that a very serious position has arisen here in which Miss
+Beverley is unfortunately involved. Incriminating documents have been
+found in her luggage, placed there obviously by some unscrupulous
+person, who was in search of a safe hiding-place."
+
+"Is this true?" Jocelyn Thew asked, looking past Crawshay to
+Katharine.
+
+"I am afraid that it is," she assented.
+
+"The person who placed them there," Crawshay proceeded, the anger
+gathering in his tone, "may believe for the present that he has been
+able to escape from his dangerous position by this dastardly attempt
+to incriminate a woman. He may, on the other hand, find that his
+immunity will last but a very short time."
+
+Jocelyn Thew nodded in calm acquiescence.
+
+"I am at a loss," he said, "to account for your somewhat melodramatic
+tone, but I really do not think that Miss Beverley has very much
+to fear."
+
+"There I agree with you," Crawshay declared. "She has not so much to
+fear as the criminal who is responsible for what has happened. He may
+think that he has escaped by saddling his crime upon a woman's
+shoulders. On the other hand, he may discover that this attempt, which
+only aggravates his position, will turn out to be futile."
+
+Jocelyn Thew held out his hand towards Katharine.
+
+"Really," he said, "the tone of this conversation takes one back to
+the atmosphere of the dear old Drury Lane melodrama. I feel, somehow
+or other," he went on, looking into Katharine's eyes, "that our friend
+here has cast me for the part of the villain and you for the injured
+heroine. I am wondering whether I dare ask you for a farewell
+greeting?"
+
+Katharine did not hesitate for a moment. Her shapely, ringless hand
+was grasped firmly by his brown, lean fingers. She felt the pressure
+of a signet ring, the slight tightening of his grip as he leaned a
+little towards her. Again she was conscious of that feeling of
+exuberant life and complete confidence which had transformed her whole
+and humiliating situation so short a time ago.
+
+"The injured heroine is always forgiving," she declared,--"even though
+she may have nothing to forgive. Good-by, Mr. Thew, and good
+fortune to you!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+The morning--grey, slightly wet--broke upon Liverpool docks, the ugliest
+place in the ugliest city of Europe. A thin stream of people descended at
+irregular intervals down the gangway from the _City of Boston_ to the dock,
+and disappeared in various directions. Amongst the first came a melancholy
+little procession--a coffin carried by two ship's stewards, with Doctor
+Gant in solitary attendance behind. After the passengers came a sprinkling
+of the ship's officers, all very smart and in a great hurry. Then there was
+a pause of several hours. About midday, two men--Brightman and a
+stranger--came down the covered way into the dock and boarded the steamer.
+They were shown at once into the captain's room, where Crawshay and Captain
+Jones were awaiting them.
+
+"This," Brightman said, introducing his companion, "is Mr. Andelsen. I was
+fortunate enough to find him on the point of leaving for London."
+
+Mr. Andelsen shook hands and accepted a chair. Upon the table in front of
+the captain was the sealed dispatch box. Crawshay had a suggestion to make.
+
+"I think," he said, "that Miss Beverley should be here herself when this is
+opened."
+
+"I have no objection," Brightman assented.
+
+The captain rang for his steward and sent down a message. Mr. Andelsen--a
+tall, thin man, dressed in a sombre grey suit--handled the seals for a
+moment, looked at the address of the box, and shook his head.
+
+"I could not take upon myself the responsibility of opening this," he
+declared. "It is certainly the seal of the Embassy of my country, but the
+box is addressed specifically to our Foreign Secretary at the Capital."
+
+"We quite appreciate that," Crawshay admitted. "The captain, I believe, is
+not asking you to break it. We simply wish you to be present while we do
+so, in order to prove that no disrespect is intended to your country, and
+in order that you yourself may have an opportunity of taking a note of the
+contents."
+
+"So long as it is understood that I am only here as a witness," the consul
+acquiesced, a little doubtfully, "I am quite willing to remain."
+
+Katharine was presently ushered in. She was dressed for landing in a smart
+tailor-made suit, and her appearance was entirely cheerful. Crawshay
+stepped forward and handed her a chair.
+
+"Dear me," she said, "this all seems very formidable! Am I under arrest or
+anything?"
+
+"The captain is about to open the dispatch box found in your trunk, Miss
+Beverley," Crawshay explained, "in the presence of Mr. Andelsen here, who
+represents the country whose seals are attached. I have already expressed
+my opinion that this box has been surreptitiously placed amongst your
+belongings, and although, of course, our chief object was to gain
+possession of it, I regret very much the position in which you are placed."
+
+"You are very kind, Mr. Crawshay," she rejoined, without much feeling. "It
+is certainly a fact that I never saw the box before it was dragged out of
+my trunk yesterday."
+
+The captain broke the seals, untied the tape, and with a chisel and hammer
+knocked the top off the box. They all, with the exception of Katharine,
+gathered around him breathlessly as he shook out the contents on to the
+table. They were all sharers in the same shock of surprise as the neatly
+folded packets of ordinary writing paper were one by one disclosed.
+Crawshay seized one and dragged it to the light. The captain kept on
+picking them up and throwing them down again. Brightman mechanically
+followed his example.
+
+"The whole thing's a bluff!" Crawshay exclaimed. "These sheets of paper are
+all blank! There isn't any trace even of invisible ink."
+
+The consul rose to his feet with a heavy frown.
+
+"This is a very obvious practical joke," he said angrily. "It seems a pity
+that I should have been compelled to miss my train to town."
+
+"A practical joke!" the captain repeated. "If it is I'm damned if I
+understand the point of it!"
+
+"Give me the envelope which held the notes," Crawshay demanded.
+
+The captain unlocked his safe and produced it. Crawshay glanced through
+some of the documents hastily.
+
+"These are all bogus, too!" he exclaimed. "There are no such streets as
+this in New York--no such names. The whole thing's a sell!"
+
+"But what the--what in thunder does it all mean?" the captain demanded,
+pulling himself up as he glanced towards Katharine.
+
+Brightman, who had scarcely spoken a word, leaned across the table.
+
+"Probably," he said drily, "it means that some one a little cleverer than
+us has got away with the real stuff whilst we played around with this
+rubbish."
+
+"But how?" Crawshay expostulated. "Not a soul has left this ship who hasn't
+been searched to the skin. The luggage in the hold is going out trunk by
+trunk, after every cubic foot has been ransacked. We have had a guard at
+every gangway since we were docked."
+
+There was a knock at the door. The ship's doctor entered. He glanced at the
+little company and hesitated.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Captain," he said, "could I have a word with you?"
+
+The captain moved towards the threshold.
+
+"Ship's business, Doctor?"
+
+"It's just a queer idea of mine about these papers," the doctor confessed.
+"It's perhaps scarcely worth mentioning--"
+
+"You'd better come in and tell us about it," the captain insisted. "That's
+what we're all talking about at the present moment."
+
+Crawshay closed the door behind the newcomer, whose manner was still to
+some extent apologetic.
+
+"It's really rather a mad idea," the latter began, "and I understand you
+found a part of what you were searching for, at any rate. But you know the
+man Phillips, who'd been operated upon for appendicitis--your patient, Miss
+Beverley, who died during the voyage?"
+
+"What about him?" the captain demanded.
+
+"Just one thing," the Doctor continued. "There was no doubt whatever that
+he had been operated upon for appendicitis, there was no doubt about the
+complications, there was no doubt about his death. I helped Doctor
+Gant--who seemed a very reasonable person, and who is known to me as one of
+the physicians at Miss Beverley's hospital--in various small details, and
+at his request I went over the clothing of the dead man and even knocked
+the coffin to see that it hadn't a double bottom. Doctor Gant appeared to
+welcome investigation in every shape and form, and yet, now that it's all
+over, there is one curious thing which rather bothers me."
+
+"Get on with it, man," the captain admonished. "Can't you see that we're
+all in a fever about this business?"
+
+The doctor produced from his pocket a small strip of very fine quality
+bandaging.
+
+"It's just this," he explained. "They left this fragment of bandaging in
+the stateroom. Phillips was bound up with it around the wound, as was quite
+natural, but it isn't ordinary stuff, you see. It's made double like a
+tube, with silk inside. He must have had a dozen yards of this around his
+leg and side, which of course was not disturbed. It's a horrible idea to a
+layman, I know," he went on, turning apologetically to Katharine,--
+
+"Captain, will you send at once for the steward," Crawshay interrupted,
+"who carried the coffin out?"
+
+The captain sent a message to the lower deck. Katharine was leaning a
+little forward, intensely interested.
+
+"Perhaps, Miss Beverley, you can throw some light upon this?" the former
+enquired--"in your capacity as nurse, I mean."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I am sorry that I cannot," she replied. "As a matter of fact, I was never
+allowed to touch the bandages. Doctor Gant did all that himself."
+
+"Have you ever seen any bandaging of this sort?" Brightman asked, showing
+her the fragment which he had taken from the doctor's fingers.
+
+"Never."
+
+Crawshay drew a little breath between his teeth. He was on the point of
+speech when a steward knocked at the door. The captain called him in.
+
+"Harrison," he asked, "were you one of the stewards who was looking after
+Doctor Gant?"
+
+"Yes, sir," the man replied.
+
+"You helped to carry the coffin out, didn't you?"
+
+"That's so, sir. We were off at six o'clock this morning."
+
+"Was there a hearse waiting?"
+
+The steward shook his head.
+
+"There was a big motor car outside, sir. We put the coffin in that and the
+doctor drove off with it--said he was to take it down to the place where
+the man had lived, for burial."
+
+"Do you know where that was?"
+
+"No idea, sir."
+
+The captain glanced towards Brightman.
+
+"Do you want to ask the man any questions?"
+
+"Questions? No, sir!" the detective replied bitterly. "We've been
+done--that's all there is about it. Never mind, they've only got six hours'
+start. We'll have that car traced, and--"
+
+"Does any one know what time Mr. Jocelyn Thew left the steamer?" Crawshay
+interrupted.
+
+"He got away last night," the steward replied. "There were three or four of
+them went up to the Adelphi to sleep. Some of them came back for their
+baggage this morning, but I haven't seen Mr. Jocelyn Thew."
+
+Katharine rose to her feet. Her tone and expression were impenetrable.
+
+"Am I still suspect?" she asked.
+
+Crawshay glanced at Brightman, who shook his head.
+
+"There is no charge against you. Miss Beverley," he admitted stiffly. "So
+far as I am concerned, you are at liberty to leave the ship whenever you
+please."
+
+She held out her hand to the captain.
+
+"I can't make up my mind, Captain," she said, smiling at him delightfully,
+"as to what sort of a voyage I have had on this steamer, but I do
+congratulate you on that escape from the raider. Good-by!"
+
+Crawshay walked with her along the deserted deck as far as the gangway.
+
+"I am afraid I cannot offer my escort any further, Miss Beverley," he
+regretted. "I must have a little conversation with Brightman here."
+
+"Of course," she answered. "I quite understand. Perhaps we may meet in
+London. It seems a pity, doesn't it," she went on sympathetically, "that
+that wonderful voyage of yours was taken for nothing? Some one on this ship
+has been very clever indeed."
+
+"Some one has," Crawshay replied bitterly, "and you and I both know who it
+is, Miss Beverley. But," he went on, holding the gangway railing as she
+turned to descend, "it's only the first part of the game that's over. Our
+friend has won on the sea, but I have an idea that we shall have him on
+land. We shall have him yet, and we'll catch him red-handed if I have
+anything to do with it. Will you wish us luck?"
+
+She turned and looked at him. Her lips parted as though she were about to
+speak. Instead she broke into a little laugh, and, turning away, descended
+the gangway. From the dock she looked up again at Crawshay.
+
+"Do come and look me up if you are in town," she begged. "I shall stay at
+Claridge's, and I shall be interested to hear how you get on."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+The _City of Boston_ docked in Liverpool on Sunday night. On Tuesday, at
+five o'clock in the afternoon, Crawshay, who had been waiting at Euston
+Station for a quarter of an hour or so, almost dragged Brightman out of the
+long train which drew slowly into the station.
+
+"We'll take a taxi somewhere," the former said. "It's the safest place to
+talk in. Any other luggage?"
+
+"Only the bag I'm carrying," the detective replied. "I have got some more
+stuff coming up, if you want me to keep on this job."
+
+"I think I shall," Crawshay told him. "I want to hear how you got on. I
+gathered from your first telegram that you were on the track. Where did you
+mean to stay?"
+
+"I've no choice."
+
+"The Savoy, then," Crawshay decided. "Jocelyn Thew is staying there, and
+you may be able to keep an eye on him. Here we are. Taxi?--Savoy!--Now,
+Brightman."
+
+"You don't want me to make a long story of it, sir," Brightman observed, as
+they drove off.
+
+"Just the things that count, that's all."
+
+"Well, we got on the track of the car all right," the detective began, "and
+traced it to a small village called Frisby, the other side of Chester, and
+to the house of a Mrs. Phillips, a woman in poor circumstances who had just
+removed from Liverpool. She was the widow, all right. She showed us
+letters, and plenty of them, from her husband in New York. It appears that
+Gant alone had brought the coffin, which was left at the cemetery, and the
+funeral will have taken place t his afternoon. Mrs. Phillips was full of
+his praises, and it seems that he had paid her over the whole of the money
+you spoke about--five thousand dollars."
+
+"There was no chicanery so far, then," Crawshay observed. "The man was
+dead, of course?"
+
+"Absolutely," Brightman declared, "and his death seems to have taken place
+exactly according to the certificate. Here comes the point, however. With
+the aid of the local police and the doctor whom we called in, the bandage
+around the wound was removed. We found in its place a perfectly fresh one,
+bought in Liverpool, not in the least resembling the silk-lined fragment
+which the ship's doctor brought into the cabin."
+
+Crawshay looked gloomily out of the window.
+
+"Well, I imagine that that settles the question of how the papers got into
+England," he sighed.
+
+"Our job, I suppose," the detective reminded him, "is to see that they
+don't get out again."
+
+"Precisely!"
+
+"In a sense," Brightman continued, "that is a toughish job, isn't it,
+because whoever has them now can make as many copies as he chooses, and one
+set would be certain to get through."
+
+"As against that," Crawshay explained, "some of the most valuable documents
+are signed letters, of which only the originals would be worth anything.
+There are also some exceedingly complicated diagrams of New York harbours,
+a plan of all the battleships in existence and projected, a wonderful
+submarine destroyer, and a new heavy gun. These things are very
+complicated, and to carry conviction must be in the original. Besides
+that," he added, dropping his voice, "there is the one most important thing
+of all, but of which as yet no one has spoken, and of which I dare scarcely
+speak even to you."
+
+"Is it in the shape of a drawing?" Brightman asked.
+
+"It is not," was the whispered reply. "It is a letter, written by the
+greatest man in one of the greatest countries in the world, to the greatest
+personage in Europe. There is a secret reward offered of half a million
+dollars for the return of that letter alone."
+
+"The affair seems worth looking into," Brightman remarked, stroking his
+little black moustache.
+
+"I can promise you that the governments on both sides will pay handsomely,"
+Crawshay assured him. "I have had my chance but let it slip. You know I had
+my training at Scotland Yard, but out in the States I found that I simply
+had to forget all that I knew. Their methods are entirely different from
+ours, and you see what a failure I have made of it. I have let them get
+away with the papers under my very nose."
+
+"I can't see that you were very much to blame, Mr. Crawshay," the detective
+observed. "It was a unique trick, and very cleverly worked out."
+
+They had turned off the main thoroughfare and were now brought to a
+standstill in the courtyard leading to the Savoy. Suddenly Crawshay gripped
+his companion by the arm and directed his attention to a man who was buying
+some roses in the florist's shop.
+
+"You see that man?" he said. "Watch him carefully. I'll tell you why when
+we get inside."
+
+The eyes of Mr. Brightman and Jocelyn Thew met over the gorgeous cluster of
+red roses which the girl was in the act of removing from the window, and
+from that moment the struggle which was to come assumed a different
+character. Brightman's thin mouth seemed to have tightened until the line
+of red had almost disappeared. There was a flush upon his sallow cheeks.
+The hand which was gripping his walking stick went white about the
+knickles. But in Jocelyn Thew there was no change save a little added
+glitter in the eyes. There was nothing else to indicate that the
+recognition was mutual.
+
+"Well, what about him?" Brightman asked, as their taxicab moved on. "What
+does he call himself?"
+
+"Mr. Jocelyn Thew is his name," Crawshay replied. "He was on the steamer.
+It is he, and not Gant, whom we have to make for. The plot which we have to
+unravel, which Gant and Phillips, and, unwittingly, Miss Beverley carried
+through, was of his scheming."
+
+"Mr. Jocelyn Thew," the detective repeated as they passed through the swing
+doors. "So that is how he calls himself now!"
+
+"You know him?"
+
+"Know him!" Brightman repeated bitterly. "The last time I saw him I could
+have sworn that I had him booked for Sing Sing prison. He got out of it, as
+he always has done. Some one else paid. It was the greatest failure I had
+when I was in the States. So he is in this thing, is he?"
+
+"He is not only very much in it," Crawshay replied, "but he is the brains
+of the whole expedition. He is the man to whom Gant delivered those
+documents some time last night."
+
+They found two easy-chairs in the smoking room and ordered cocktails. Mr.
+Brightman sat forward in his chair. He was one of those men whose
+individuality seems to rise to any call made upon it. He was indifferently
+dressed, by no means good-looking, and he had started life as a policeman.
+Just now, however, he seemed to sink quite naturally into his surroundings.
+Nothing about his appearance seemed worthy of note except the determination
+of his very dogged mouth.
+
+"I accepted your commission a short time ago, Mr. Crawshay," he said, "with
+the interest which one always feels in Government business of a
+remunerative character. I tell you now that I would have taken it on
+eagerly if there had not been a penny hanging to it. I can't tell you
+exactly why I feel so bitterly about him, but if I can really get my hands
+on to the man who calls himself Jocelyn Thew, it will be one of the
+happiest days of my life."
+
+"You really know something about him, then? He really is a bad lot?"
+Crawshay asked eagerly.
+
+"The worst that ever breathed," Brightman declared, "the bravest, coolest,
+best-bred scoundrel who ever mocked the guardians of the law. Mind you, I
+am not saying that he hasn't done other things. He has travelled and fought
+in many countries, but when he comes back to civilisation he can't rest.
+The world has to hear of him. Things move in New York underground. The
+moment he takes rooms at the Carlton-Ritz, things happen in a way that they
+have never happened before, and we know that there's genius at the back of
+it all, and Jocelyn Thew smiles in our faces. I tell you that if anything
+could have kept me in America, although I very much prefer Liverpool, the
+chance of laying my hands on this man would have done it."
+
+Through the swing doors, almost as Brightman had concluded his speech, came
+Jocelyn Thew. He was dressed in light tweeds, carefully fashioned by an
+English tailor. His tie and collar, his grey Homburg hat with its black
+band, his beautifully polished and not too new brown shoes, were exactly
+according to the decrees of Bond Street. He seemed to be making his way to
+the bar, but at the sight of them he paused and strolled across the room
+towards them.
+
+"Getting your land legs, Mr. Crawshay?" he enquired.
+
+"Pretty well, thank you. You finished your business in Liverpool quickly, I
+see."
+
+"More urgent business brought me to London. I dined and spent last evening,
+by-the-by, with Doctor Gant--the doctor who was in attendance upon that
+poor fellow who died on the way over."
+
+"A very ingenious gentleman," Crawshay observed drily.
+
+"Ah! you appreciate that, do you?" Jocelyn Thew replied, with a faint
+smile. "You should go and cultivate his acquaintance. He is staying over at
+the Regent Palace Hotel."
+
+"One doesn't always attach oneself to the wrong person, Mr. Thew."
+
+"Even the stupidest people in the world," Jocelyn Thew agreed, "can
+scarcely make mistakes all the time, can they? By the way," he went on,
+turning towards the detective, "is it my fancy or have I not had the
+pleasure of meeting Mr. Brightman in America? I fancied so when I saw him
+board the steamer in the Mersey on Sunday, but it did not fall to my lot to
+receive the benefit of his offices."
+
+"I was just telling Mr. Crawshay that I had had the pleasure of
+professional dealings with you," Brightman said drily. "I was also
+lamenting the fact that they had not ended according to my desires."
+
+"Mr. Brightman was always ambitious," the newcomer observed, with gentle
+satire. "He is, I am sure, a most persevering and intelligent member of his
+profession, but he flies high."
+
+"I am much obliged for your commendation," Brightman said bluntly. "As
+regards professions, I was just explaining to Mr. Crawshay that you were
+almost at the top of the tree in yours."
+
+"If you have discovered my profession," Jocelyn Thew replied, "you have
+succeeded where my dearest friends have failed. Pray do not make a secret
+of it, Mr. Brightman."
+
+"I have heard you called an adventurer," was the prompt reply.
+
+"It is a term with which I will not quarrel," Jocelyn declared. "I
+certainly am one of those who appreciate adventures, who have no pleasure
+in sitting down in these grey-walled, fog-hung cities, and crawling about
+with one's nose on the pavements like a dog following an unclean smell. No,
+that has not been my life. I have sought fortune in most quarters of the
+globe, sometimes found it and sometimes lost it, sometimes with one weapon
+in my hand and sometimes with another. So perhaps you are right, Mr.
+Brightman, when you call me an adventurer."
+
+"These very uncomfortable times," Crawshay remarked, "rather limit the
+sphere in which one may look for stirring events."
+
+"You are wrong, believe me," Jocelyn Thew replied earnestly. "The stories
+of the Arabian Nights would seem tame, if one had the power of seeing what
+goes on around us in the most unsuspected places. But we are digressing.
+Mr. Brightman and I were speaking together. It occurred to me, from what he
+said, that he has not quite the right idea as to my aspirations, as to the
+place I desire to fill in life. I shall try to give him an opportunity to
+form a saner judgment."
+
+"It will give me the utmost pleasure to accept it," the detective
+confessed, with ill-concealed acerbity.
+
+Jocelyn Thew sighed lightly. He had seated himself upon the arm of a
+neighbouring easy-chair and was resting his hand upon the head of a cane he
+was carrying.
+
+"If our friend Brightman here has a fault," he said, "in the execution of
+his daily duties, it is that he brings to bear into his task a certain
+amount of prejudice, from which the mind of the ideal detector of crime
+should be free. Now you would scarcely believe it, Mr. Crawshay, I am sure,
+to judge from his amiable exterior, but Mr. Brightman is capable of very
+strong dislikes, of one of which, alas! I am the object. Now this is not as
+it should be. You see what might happen, supposing Mr. Brightman were
+engaged to watch a little coterie, or, in plainer parlance, a little gang
+of supposed misdemeanants. If by any possible stretch of his imagination he
+could connect me with them, I should be the one he would go for all the
+time, and although I perhaps carry my fair burden of those peccadilloes to
+which the law, rightly or wrongly, takes exception, still, in this
+particular instance I might be the innocent one, and in Mr. Brightman's too
+great eagerness to fasten evil things upon me, the real culprit might
+escape.--Thank you, Mr. Crawshay," he added, accepting the cocktail which
+the waiter had presented. "Let us drink a little toast together. Shall we
+say 'Success to Mr. Brightman's latest enterprise, whatever it may be!'"
+
+Crawshay glanced at his companion.
+
+"I think we can humour our friend by drinking that toast, Brightman," he
+said.
+
+"I shall drink it with great pleasure," the detective agreed.
+
+They set down their empty glasses. Jocelyn Thew rose regretfully to his
+feet.
+
+"I fear," he said, "that I must tear myself away. We shall meet again, I
+trust. And, Mr. Brightman, a word with you. If you are in town for a
+holiday, if you have no business to worry you just at present, why not
+practise on me for a time? Watch me. Find out the daily incidents of my
+life. See what company I keep, where I spend my spare time--you know--and
+all the rest of it. I can assure you that although I am not the great
+criminal you fancy me, I am a most interesting person to study. Take my
+advice, Mr. Brightman. Keep your eye upon me."
+
+They watched him on the way to the door--a little languid but exceedingly
+pleasant to look upon, exceedingly distinguished and prepossessing. A look
+of half unwilling admiration crept into Brightman's face.
+
+"Whatever that man really may be," he declared, "he is a great artist."
+
+The swing door leading from the room into the cafe was pushed open, and a
+woman entered. She stood for a moment looking around until her eyes fell
+upon Jocelyn Thew. Crawshay suddenly gripped the detective's arm.
+
+"Is there anything for us in this, my friend?" he whispered. "Watch Jocelyn
+Thew's face!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+For a few seconds Jocelyn Thew was certainly taken aback. His little start,
+his look of blank astonishment, were coupled with a certain loss of poise
+which Crawshay had been quick to note. But, after all, the interlude was
+brief enough.
+
+"Exactly what does this mean, Nora?" he demanded.
+
+Her vivid brown eyes were fastened upon his face, eager to understand his
+attitude, a little defiant, a little appealing. There was nothing to be
+gathered from his expression, however. After that first moment he was
+entirely himself--well-mannered, unemotional, cold.
+
+"I came over on the _Baltic_," she explained, "I guessed I'd find you here.
+Fourteenth Street was getting a little sultry. The old man hopped it to San
+Francisco the day you left."
+
+"Sit down," he invited.
+
+They found places on a lounge and were served with cocktails. The girl
+sipped hers disapprovingly.
+
+"Rum stuff, this," she declared. "I guess I'll have to get my shaker out."
+
+"You are staying here, then?" he enquired.
+
+"Why not?" she replied, with a faint note of truculence in her tone. "You
+know I'm not short of money, and I guessed it was where I should find you."
+
+He raised his eyebrows.
+
+"That is very nice and companionable of you," he said, "and naturally I
+shall be very glad to be of any assistance possible whilst you are over
+here, but I hope you will remember, Nora, that I did not encourage you to
+come."
+
+"I'm wise enough about that," she admitted. "I never expected you to care
+two pins whether you ever saw me again or not, and I know quite well," she
+went on hastily, "that I haven't any right to follow you, or anything of
+that sort. But honestly, Mr. Thew, we were being watched down there, and
+New York wasn't exactly healthy."
+
+He nodded.
+
+"Yes," he assented, "no doubt you are right. They have awkward methods of
+cross-examination there, although I don't think they'd get much out of you,
+Nora."
+
+"I'd no fancy to have them try," she admitted. "Besides, I've never had
+that trip to Europe that uncle and I were always talking about, and it
+seemed to me that if I wanted to see the old country whole, now or never
+was the time. You may all be a German colony over here by next year."
+
+"I have no right or any desire," he told her quietly, "to interfere in any
+way with your plans, but I must warn you that just at present I am living
+in the utmost jeopardy. I have no friends to whom I can introduce you, nor
+any of my own time or attentions to offer. Unless you choose to exercise
+tact, I might find your presence here not only embarrassing but a positive
+hindrance to my plans."
+
+"I guess I can lie close," she replied, looking at him through half-closed
+eyes. "Just how am I to size that up, though?"
+
+He looked at her appraisingly, a little cruelly. The effect of her
+beautiful figure was almost ruined by the cheap and unbecoming clothes in
+which she was attired. Her hat, with its huge hatpins and ultra-fashionable
+height, was hideous. She exuded perfumes. Her silk stockings and suede
+shoes were the only reasonable things about her. The former she was
+displaying with some recklessness as she leaned back upon the settee.
+
+"I once told you," he said calmly, "that there was no woman in the world
+for whom I felt the slightest affection."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"That is no longer the case."
+
+Her eyes glittered.
+
+"Who is she?"
+
+"It is not necessary for you to know," he answered coldly. "She happens,
+however, to be concerned in the business which I have on hand. She has been
+of great assistance to me, and she may yet be the means of helping me to
+final success. I cannot afford to have her upset by any false impressions."
+
+She looked at him almost wonderingly.
+
+"If you're not the limit!" she exclaimed. "Nothing matters to you except to
+succeed. You tell me in one breath that you care for a woman for the first
+time in your life, and in the next you speak of using her as your tool!"
+
+"You perhaps find that incomprehensible," he observed. "I do not blame you.
+At present, however, I have only one object in life, and that is to succeed
+in the business I have on hand. Whatever I may find it necessary to do to
+attain my ends, I shall do."
+
+She had gone a little pale, and her white teeth were holding down her full
+under lip.
+
+"Buy me another cocktail," she demanded.
+
+He obeyed, and she drank it at a gulp.
+
+"So you are not going to be nice to me?" she asked in a low tone.
+
+"That depends upon what you call nice," he answered. "I am rather up
+against a blank wall. Even if I succeed, I remain in this country at very
+considerable personal danger. I am not sure that even for your sake, Nora,
+it is well for you to associate with me. Why not go home? You'll find some
+of your people still there--and an old sweetheart or two, very likely."
+
+"It isn't a very warm welcome," she remarked, a little wistfully.
+
+"You have taken me by surprise," he reminded her. "I had not the slightest
+idea of your coming."
+
+"I know that," she sighed. "I suppose I ought not to have hoped for
+anything more. You've never been any different to me than to any of the
+others. You treat us all, men and women, just alike. You are gracious or
+cold, just according to how much we can help. I sometimes wonder, Mr.
+Jocelyn Thew, whether you have a heart at all."
+
+For a single moment he looked at her kindly. His hand even patted hers. It
+was a curious revelation. He was a kindly ordinary human being.
+
+"Ah, Nora," he said, "I am not quite so bad as that! But for many years I
+have had a great, driving impulse inside me, and at the back of it the most
+wonderful incentive in all the world. You know what that is, Nora--or
+perhaps you don't. To a woman it would be love, I suppose. To a man it is
+hate."
+
+She drew a little further away from him, as though something which had
+flamed in his eyes for a moment had frightened her.
+
+"Yes," she murmured, "you are like that."
+
+Jocelyn Thew was himself again almost at once.
+
+"Since we understand one another, Nora," he said, a little more kindly,
+"let me tell you that I am really very glad to see you, although you did
+give me rather a shock just now. I want you, if you will, to turn your head
+to the left. You see those two men--one seated in the easy-chair and the
+other on its arm?"
+
+"I see them."
+
+"They are the two men," he continued, "who are out to spoil my show if they
+can. You may see them again under very different circumstances."
+
+"I shan't forget," she murmured. "The dark one looks like Brightman, the
+detective you were up against in that Fall River business--the man who
+believed that you were the High Priest of crime in New York."
+
+"You have a good memory," he remarked. "It is the same man."
+
+"And the other," she continued, with a sudden added interest in her
+tone--"Why, that's the Englishman who had me turned off from the hotel in
+Washington. Don't you remember, I went there for a month on trial as
+telephone operator, just before the election? You remember why. That
+Englishman was always dropping in. Used to bring me flowers now and then,
+but I felt certain from the first he was suspicious. He got me turned off
+just as things were getting interesting."
+
+"Right again," Jocelyn Thew told her. "His name is Crawshay. He is the man
+who was sent out from Scotland Yard to the English Embassy. He crossed with
+me on the steamer. We had our first little bout there."
+
+"Who won?"
+
+"The first trick fell to me," he acknowledged grimly.
+
+"And so will the second and the third," she murmured. "He may be brainy,
+though he doesn't look it with that monacle and the peering way he has, but
+you're too clever for them all, Jocelyn Thew. You'll win."
+
+He smiled very faintly.
+
+"Well," he said, "this time I have to win or throw in my chips. Now if you
+like we'll have some lunch, and afterwards, if you'll forgive my taking the
+liberty of mentioning it, you had better buy some clothes."
+
+"You don't like this black silk?" she asked wistfully. "I got it at a store
+up-town, and they told me these sort of skirts were all the rage over
+here."
+
+"Well, you can see for yourself they aren't," he remarked, a little drily.
+"London is a queer place in many ways, especially about clothes. You're
+either right or you're wrong, and you've got to be right, Nora. We'll see
+about it presently."
+
+They left the room together. Crawshay looked after them with interest.
+
+"This affair," he told his companion, "grows hourly more and more
+interesting. You've been up against Jocelyn Thew, you tell me. Well, I am
+perfectly certain that that girl, whose coming gave him such a start, was a
+young woman I had turned away from an hotel in Washington. She was in the
+game then--more locally, perhaps, but still in the same game. I used to sit
+and talk to her in the afternoons sometimes. Finest brown eyes I ever saw
+in my life. I wonder if there is anything between her and Jocelyn Thew," he
+added, looking through the door with a faintly disapproving note in his
+tone,--a note which a woman would have recognised at once as jealousy.
+
+"If you ask me, I should say no," the other answered. "I've kept tabs on
+Jocelyn Thew for a bit, and I've had his _dossier_. There's never been a
+woman's name mentioned in connection with him--don't seem as though he'd
+ever moved round or taken a meal with one all the time he was in New York.
+To tell you the truth, Mr. Crawshay, that's just what makes it so difficult
+to get your hands on a man you want. Nine times out of ten it's through the
+women we get home. The man who stands clear of them has an extra chance or
+two--Say, what time this evening?"
+
+"Come to my rooms at 178, St. James's Street, at seven o'clock," Crawshay
+directed. "I've a little investigation to make before then."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+Crawshay took a taxicab from the Savoy to Claridge's Hotel, sent up his
+card and was conducted to Katharine Beverley's sitting room on the first
+floor. She kept him waiting for a few moments, and he felt a sudden
+instinct of curiosity as he noticed the great pile of red roses which a
+maid had only just finished arranging. When she came in, he looked towards
+her in surprise. She appeared to have grown thinner, and there were dark
+rims under her eyes. Her words of greeting were colourless. She seemed
+almost afraid to meet his steady gaze.
+
+"I ought to apologise for calling in the morning," he said, "but I ventured
+to do so, hoping that you would come out and have some lunch with me."
+
+"I really don't feel well enough," she replied. "London is not agreeing
+with me at all."
+
+"You are ill?" he exclaimed, with some concern.
+
+She looked at the closed door through which the maid had issued.
+
+"Not exactly ill. I have some anxieties," she answered. "It is kind of you
+to keep your promise and come. Please tell me exactly what happened? You
+know how interested I am."
+
+"I have unfortunately nothing to report but failure," he replied.
+"Everything seems to have happened exactly as the doctor on the ship
+suggested. The detectives at Liverpool were quite smart. We were able to
+trace the car without much difficulty, and the body of your patient
+Phillips was found at his home, the other side of Chester. We obtained
+permission to make an examination, and we found that, just as we expected,
+fresh bandages had been put on only a few hours previously."
+
+"And Doctor Gant?"
+
+"He is at an hotel in London. He is watched night and day, but he seems to
+divide his time between genuine sight-seeing and trying to arrange for his
+passage home. Naturally, the whole of his effects have been searched, but
+without the slightest result."
+
+"And--and Mr. Jocelyn Thew?"
+
+"His business in Liverpool seems to have detained him a very short time. He
+is staying now at the Savoy Hotel. Needless to say, his effects too have
+been thoroughly searched, without result."
+
+"You know that he sent me these?" she asked, glancing towards the roses.
+
+"I saw him buying them."
+
+Her fingers had strayed over one of the blossoms, and he noticed that while
+they talked she was convulsively crushing it into pulp.
+
+"Were these detectives from Liverpool," she asked, "able to keep any watch
+upon Doctor Gant and Mr. Jocelyn Thew after--Chester?"
+
+"To some extent. There is no doubt that Jocelyn Thew spent the first night
+in Liverpool. After that he travelled to London and took up his residence
+at the Savoy. Here Doctor Gant, who had travelled up from Chester, called
+upon him, late in the afternoon of the day of his arrival. They spent some
+time together, and subsequently the doctor took a room at the Regent Palace
+Hotel. The two men dined together at the Savoy grill, and took a box at the
+Alhambra music-hall, where they spent the evening. They appear to have
+returned to Jocelyn Thew's rooms, had a whisky and soda each and separated.
+There is no record of their having spoken to any other person or visited
+any other place."
+
+"And their rooms have been searched?"
+
+"By the most skilled men we have."
+
+She pulled another of the roses to pieces.
+
+"So it comes to this," she said. "All these documents, of whose existence
+both you and the American police knew, have been brought from America to
+England, and even now you cannot locate them."
+
+"At present we cannot," he confessed drily, "but I am not prepared to admit
+for a single moment that they are ever likely to reach their destination."
+
+"Jocelyn Thew is very clever," she reminded him calmly.
+
+"I am tired of being told so," he replied, with a touch of irritation in
+his tone.
+
+She smiled.
+
+"You probably need your luncheon! If you care to come downstairs with me,"
+she invited, "we can finish our conversation."
+
+"I shall be only too pleased."
+
+Katharine Beverley's table was in a quiet corner, and she sat with her back
+to the window, but even under such circumstances the change in her during
+the last few days was noticeable. There was a frightened light in her eyes,
+her cheeks were entirely colourless, her hands seemed almost transparent.
+Such a change in so short a time seemed almost incredible. Crawshay found
+himself unable to ignore it.
+
+"I am very sorry to see you looking so unwell," he observed
+sympathetically. "I am afraid the shock of your voyage across the Atlantic
+has been too much for you."
+
+"I am terribly disturbed," she confessed. "I am disappointed, too, in Mr.
+Jocelyn Thew. One hates to be made use of so flagrantly."
+
+"You really knew nothing, then, until those things were discovered in your
+stateroom?"
+
+"That question," she replied, "I am not going to answer."
+
+"But the main part of the plot?" he persisted, "the bandages?"
+
+"Doctor Gant never allowed me to touch them. That is what I found so
+inexplicable,--what first set me wondering."
+
+"The whole scheme was very cleverly thought out," Crawshay pronounced, "but
+if you will forgive my repeating a previous speculation, Miss Beverley, the
+greatest mystery about it all, to me, is how you, Miss Katharine Beverley,
+whose name and reputation in New York stands so high, were induced to leave
+your work, your social engagements and your home, at a time like this, when
+your country really has claims upon you, to act as ordinary sick nurse to a
+New York clerk of humble means who turns out to have been nothing but the
+tool of Jocelyn Thew."
+
+"I am still unable to explain that," she told him.
+
+He realised the state of tension in which she was and suddenly abandoned
+the whole subject. He spoke of the theatres, asked of her friends in town,
+discussed the news of the day, and made no further allusion of any sort to
+the mystery which surrounded them. It was not until after they had been
+served with their coffee in the lounge that he reverted to more serious
+matters.
+
+"Miss Beverley," he said, "for your own sake I am exceedingly unwilling to
+leave you like this. I may seem to you to be an inquisitor, but believe me
+I am a friendly one. I cannot see that you have anything to lose in being
+frank with me. I wish to help you. I wish to relieve the anxiety from which
+I know that you are suffering. Give me your confidence."
+
+"You ask a very difficult thing," she sighed.
+
+"Difficult but not impossible," he insisted. "I can quite understand that
+your discovery of the fact that you had been made use of to assist in the
+bringing to England of treasonable documents is of itself likely to be a
+severe shock to you, but, if you will permit me to say so, it is not
+sufficient to account for your present state of nerves."
+
+"You don't know all that is happening," she replied, in some agitation.
+"There is a very astute lady detective who has a room near mine, and a man
+who shadows me every time I come in or go out. I am expecting every moment
+that the manager will ask me to leave the hotel."
+
+"That is all very annoying, of course," he acknowledged sympathetically,
+"and yet I believe that at the back of your head there is still something
+else troubling you."
+
+"You are very observant," she murmured.
+
+"In your case," he replied, "close observation is scarcely necessary. Why,
+it is only four days since we left the steamer, and you look simply the
+wreck of yourself."
+
+"A great deal has happened since then," she confessed.
+
+He seized upon the admission.
+
+"You see, I was right.--There is something else! Miss Beverley, I am your
+friend. You must confide in me."
+
+"It would be useless," she assured him sadly.
+
+"You cannot be sure of that," he insisted. "If this espionage gets on your
+nerves, I believe that I have influence enough to have it removed, provided
+that you will let me bring a friend of mine to see you here and ask you a
+few questions."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"It is not the espionage alone," she declared. "I am confronted with
+something altogether different, something about which I cannot speak."
+
+"Is this man Jocelyn Thew connected with it in any way?" he demanded.
+
+She winced.
+
+"Why should you ask that question?"
+
+"Because it is perfectly clear," he continued, "that Jocelyn Thew exercises
+some sort of unholy influence over you, an influence, I may add, which it
+is my intention to destroy."
+
+She smiled bitterly.
+
+"If you can destroy anything that Jocelyn Thew means to keep alive," she
+began--
+
+"Oh, please don't believe that Jocelyn Thew is infallible," he interrupted.
+"I have had a long experience of diplomatists and plotters and even
+criminals, and I can assure you that no man breathing is possessed of more
+than ordinary human powers. Jocelyn Thew has brought it off against us this
+time, but then, you see, one must lose a trick now and then. It is the next
+step which counts."
+
+"Oh, the next step will be all right!" she replied, with a hard little
+laugh. "He has brought his spoils to England, although there must have been
+twenty or thirty detectives on board, and you won't be able to stop his
+disposing of them exactly as he likes."
+
+"I don't agree with you," he assured her confidently. "That, however, is
+not what I want to talk about. You are in a false position. In the struggle
+which is going on now, your heart and soul should be with us and against
+Jocelyn Thew."
+
+Her eyes were lit with a momentary terror.
+
+"You don't suppose for a moment," she said, "that my sympathies are not
+with my own country and our joint cause?"
+
+"I don't," he replied. "On the other hand, your actions should follow upon
+your sympathies. There is something sinister in your present state. I want
+you to tell me just what the terror is that is sitting in your heart, that
+has changed you like this. Jocelyn Thew has some hold upon you. If so, you
+need a man to stand by your side. Can't you treat me as a friend?"
+
+She softened at his words. For a moment she sat quite silent.
+
+"I can only repeat to you what I told you once before," she said. "If you
+are picturing Jocelyn Thew to yourself as a blackmailer, or anything of
+that sort, you are wrong. I am under the very deepest obligations to him."
+
+"But surely," he protested, "you have paid your debt, whatever it was?"
+
+"He admits it."
+
+"And yet the terror remains?"
+
+"It remains," she repeated sadly.
+
+Crawshay meditated for a moment.
+
+"Look here, Miss Beverley," he said, "I have a friend who is chief in this
+country of a department which I will not name. Will you dine with me
+to-night and let me invite him to meet you?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"It is a very kind thought," she declared, "but I am engaged. Mr. Jocelyn
+Thew is dining here."
+
+Crawshay's face for a moment was very black indeed. He rose slowly to his
+feet.
+
+"I know that you mean to be kind," she continued, "and I fear that I must
+seem very ungrateful. Believe me, I am not. I am simply faced with one of
+those terrible problems which must be solved, and yet which admit of no
+help from any living person."
+
+Crawshay's attitude had grown perceptibly stiffer.
+
+"I am very sorry indeed, Miss Beverley," he said, "that you cannot give me
+your confidence. I am very sorry for my own sake, and I am sorry for
+yours."
+
+"Is that a threat?" she asked.
+
+"You know the old proverb," he answered, as he bowed over her fingers.
+"'Those who are not on my side are against me.'"
+
+"You are going to treat me as an enemy?"
+
+"Until you prove yourself to be a friend."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+At a quarter to eight that evening, a young man who had made fitful
+appearances in the lounge of Claridge's Restaurant during the last
+half-hour went to the telephone and rang up a certain West End number.
+
+"Are these Mr. Crawshay's rooms?" he asked.
+
+"Mr. Crawshay speaking," was the reply.
+
+"Brightman there?"
+
+Crawshay turned away from the telephone and handed the receiver to the
+detective.
+
+"What news, Henshaw?" the latter enquired.
+
+"Miss Beverley dines at her usual table, sir, at eight o'clock," was the
+reply. "The table is set for three."
+
+"For three?" Brightman exclaimed.
+
+"For three?" Crawshay echoed, turning from the sideboard, where he had been
+in the act of mixing some cocktails.
+
+"You are quite sure the third place isn't a mistake?" Brightman asked.
+
+"Quite sure, sir," was the prompt reply. "I am acquainted with one of the
+head waiters here, and I understand that two gentlemen are expected."
+
+"Anything else?"
+
+"Nothing, sir. Miss Beverley sent away two parcels this afternoon, which
+were searched downstairs. They were quite unimportant."
+
+"I shall expect to hear from you again," Brightman directed, "within half
+an hour. If the third person is a stranger, try and find out his name."
+
+"I'll manage that all right, Mr. Brightman. The young lady has just come
+down. I'll be getting back into the lounge."
+
+Brightman turned around to Crawshay, who was in the act of shaking the
+cocktails.
+
+"A third party," he observed.
+
+"Interesting," Crawshay declared, "very interesting! Perhaps the
+intermediary. It might possibly be Doctor Gant, though."
+
+The detective shook his head.
+
+"Three quarters of an hour ago," he said, "Doctor Gant went into Gatti's
+for a chop. He was quite alone and in morning clothes."
+
+Crawshay poured the amber-coloured liquid which he had been shaking into a
+frosted glass, handed it to his companion and filled one for himself.
+
+"Here's hell to Jocelyn Thew, anyway!" he exclaimed, with a note of real
+feeling in his tone.
+
+"If I thought," Brightman declared, "that drinking that toast would bring
+him any nearer to it, I should become a confirmed drunkard. As it is,
+sir--my congratulations! A very excellent mixture!"
+
+He set down his glass empty and Crawshay turned away to light a cigarette.
+
+"No," he decided, "I don't think that it would be Doctor Gant. Jocelyn Thew
+has finished with him all right. He did his job well and faithfully, but he
+was only a hired tool. Speculation, however, is useless. We must wait for
+Henshaw's news. Perhaps this third guest, whoever he may be, may give us a
+clue as to Jocelyn Thew's influence over Miss Beverley."
+
+The telephone rang a few minutes later. Crawshay this time took up the
+receiver, and Brightman the spare one which hung by the side. It was
+Henshaw speaking.
+
+"Miss Beverley has just gone in to dinner," he announced. "She is
+accompanied by Mr. Jocelyn Thew and a young officer in the uniform of a
+Flight Commander."
+
+"What is his name?" Crawshay asked.
+
+"I have had no opportunity of finding out yet," was the reply. "I believe
+that he is staying in the hotel, and he seems to be on very intimate terms
+with Miss Beverley."
+
+"On no account lose sight of the party," Crawshay directed, "and try and
+find out the young soldier's name. Wasn't he introduced to Jocelyn Thew?"
+
+"Not a bit of it," was the prompt reply. "They shook hands very much like
+old friends."
+
+"Go back and watch," Crawshay directed. "I must know his name. The sooner
+you can find out, the better. I want to get away within a few minutes, if I
+can."
+
+They left the instrument. Crawshay, who seemed a little nervous, took a
+cigarette from an open box which he passed across to his companion, and
+strolled up and down the room for a few moments with his hands in his
+pockets.
+
+"A young officer," he remarked, "presumably English, known to both Miss
+Beverley and Jocelyn Thew, seems rather a puzzle. He may be the connecting
+link. I hope to goodness your man won't be long, Brightman."
+
+"Are you in a hurry?" the detective asked.
+
+Crawshay nodded.
+
+"I want to get round to the Savoy," he announced.
+
+Brightman smiled slightly.
+
+"Were you thinking about the young lady, sir?" he asked.
+
+"I thought it might be useful to renew my acquaintance with her," Crawshay
+explained, a little laboriously. "I shouldn't think she'd go out alone."
+
+"She has probably made some friends by this time," Brightman observed.
+
+Crawshay dropped his eyeglass and polished it.
+
+"From my experience of the young lady," he said, a little stiffly, "I
+should think it improbable. I happened to meet her twice in New York, and
+she struck me as being an extraordinarily well-behaved and, in her natural
+way, very attractive person."
+
+"Do you suppose that she came to Europe after Jocelyn Thew?" Brightman
+asked.
+
+"Oh, damn Jocelyn Thew!" Crawshay replied. "I should think it most
+unlikely. You and I have both seen the man's _dossier_. Most cold-blooded
+person alive."
+
+The telephone broke in once more upon their conversation. Crawshay took up
+the receiver. It was Henshaw speaking.
+
+"I made a mistake about the uniform, sir," he announced. "The young man is
+in the Canadian Flying Corps and he is the young lady's brother. He is
+called Captain Beverley."
+
+"Her brother!" Crawshay exclaimed.
+
+"The connecting link!" Brightman murmured.
+
+Meanwhile, the little dinner at Claridge's, of which sketchy tidings were
+being conveyed to the two occupants of Crawshay's flat by Henshaw, was
+settling down, so far as the two men were concerned, into a cheery enough
+meal. There had been a little strangeness at first, but Jocelyn Thew's
+hearty welcome of his young friend, and his genuine pleasure at seeing him,
+had quickly broken the ice. Katharine, however, although she had a shade
+more colour than earlier in the day, had sometimes the air of a Banquo at
+the feast. She listened almost feverishly to Jocelyn Thew, whenever he
+seemed inclined to turn the conversation into a certain channel, and she
+watched her brother a little anxiously as the waiter filled up his glass,
+unchecked, every few minutes. The likeness between the two was apparent
+enough, although marked by certain differences. Beverley was tall, of
+exceedingly powerful build, and with a fresh, strong face which would have
+been remarkably attractive but for the weak mouth and the slightly puffy
+cheeks.
+
+"I can't conceive anything more fortunate than this meeting," Jocelyn Thew
+declared, as he inspected the cigars which had been brought round to him,
+with the air of a connoisseur. "Quite an extraordinary coincidence, too,
+that you should turn up in London on five days' leave, the very day that
+your sister arrives from the States. Tell me, are you right up at the
+front?"
+
+"Right beyond it, most days," was the cheerful reply. "We spend most of our
+time over the German lines."
+
+"Lucky fellow!" Jocelyn Thew sighed. "You are getting now what a few years
+ago one had to defy the law for--real, thrilling sensations. It's a life
+for men, yours."
+
+The young man's hand shook a little as he raised his glass. He looked
+towards Jocelyn Thew almost appealingly.
+
+"It's a splendid life," he assented, talking rapidly and with the air of
+one who wishes to stifle conversation. "I had hard work to get my wings,
+but I guess I'm all right now. The engine part of it never gave me any
+trouble, but I suffered from a kind of sickness the first few times I went
+up. It's a gorgeous sensation, flying. The worst of it is we never know
+when those cunning Germans aren't coming out with something fresh. They
+stung us up last week with a dozen planes of an entirely new pattern, two
+hundred and fifty horse-power engines on a small frame. Gee, they gave some
+of our elderly machines a touching up, I can tell you!"
+
+"So you fly over the German lines most days, eh?" Jocelyn Thew ruminated.
+
+"We dropped a few thousand copies of the President's speech last Monday,"
+the young man told them. "That ought to give them something to think about.
+They only know just what they are told. The last batch of prisoners that
+were brought in firmly believed that one of their armies had landed in
+England and that London was on the point of falling."
+
+"All war," Jocelyn Thew said didactically, "is carried on under a cloud of
+misconception."
+
+The young man stretched himself out. He had dined well and his courage was
+returning. He asked a question which up till then he had felt inclined to
+shirk.
+
+"What licks me," he declared suddenly, "is finding you two over here. What
+ever brought you across, Katharine?"
+
+There was a brief silence. Katharine seemed uncertain how to answer. It was
+Jocelyn Thew who took up the challenge.
+
+"A little over a fortnight ago," he explained, "I called upon your sister
+in New York. I begged her to perform a certain service for me. She
+consented. The execution of that service brought her across from New York
+on board the _City of Boston_."
+
+"But have you two been seeing anything of one another, then? You never
+mentioned Thew in any of your letters, Katharine?"
+
+"Your sister and I have not met since a certain memorable occasion,"
+Jocelyn Thew replied.
+
+The young man shivered and drained his glass.
+
+"What was this service?" he enquired.
+
+"Your sister played sick nurse upon the steamer to a person in whom I was
+interested, and who was operated upon in her hospital," Jocelyn Thew
+explained. "He was an Englishman, and very anxious to reach his own country
+before he died."
+
+"I can't quite catch on to it," Beverley admitted.
+
+Jocelyn Thew glanced carelessly around. His manner was the reverse of
+suspicious, but he only resumed his speech when he was sure that not even a
+waiter was within hearing.
+
+"It happened to form part of an important plan of mine," he said, "that a
+man who was dangerously ill should be brought over to England without
+raising any suspicion as to his _bona fides_. I made use of your sister's
+name and social position to ensure this. There has been, as I think you
+have often acknowledged, Beverley, a debt owing from you to me. Half of
+that debt your sister has paid."
+
+"You haven't been getting Katharine mixed up in any crooked business?" her
+brother demanded excitedly.
+
+"Your sister ran no risk whatever," Jocelyn Thew assured him. "She
+performed her share of the bargain excellently. It is just possible," he
+continued, with a glint of fire in his eyes and a peculiar, cold emphasis
+creeping into his words, "that it may fall to your lot to wipe out the
+remainder of the debt."
+
+Beverley moved in his chair uneasily.
+
+"You will remember," he said, "that things have changed. I am not a free
+agent now. I entered upon this fighting business as an adventure, but, my
+God, Thew, it's got into my blood! I've seen things, felt things. I don't
+want anything to come between me and the glorious life I live day by day."
+
+Jocelyn Thew nodded approvingly.
+
+"That's the proper spirit, Beverley," he declared. "I always knew you had
+pluck. Quite the proper spirit! Your sister showed the same courage when
+the necessity came."
+
+"Oh, don't bring me into this, please!" she interrupted.
+
+"You seem to have been brought into it," her brother observed grimly, "and
+I'm not sure that I am satisfied. I can pay my own debts."
+
+There was a note of rising anger in his tone. Katharine laid her fingers
+upon his hand.
+
+"Don't imagine things, please, Dick," she begged. "It is my own foolishness
+if I am disturbed. I really had nothing to do. Mr. Thew has been most
+considerate."
+
+"In any case," Jocelyn Thew went on, "I think that the matter had better be
+discussed another time, when we are alone. We might have to make reference
+to things which are best not mentioned in a public place."
+
+For a moment the young man's eyes challenged his. Then they fell. He
+shivered a little.
+
+"Why ever speak of them?" he demanded.
+
+"Ah, well, we'll see," Jocelyn Thew observed. "Now what about an hour or
+two at a music-hall? I have a box at the Alhambra."
+
+Katharine rose at once to her feet. They all made their way into the
+lounge. Whilst they waited for her to fetch her cloak, Beverley swung round
+to his companion.
+
+"Look here," he said, "for myself it doesn't matter--you know that--but
+what game are you playing? I don't know much about your life, of course,
+before those few days, but on your own showing you were out for big things.
+Are you known here? Is it anything--anything against the law, this business
+you're on? I don't care for myself--you know that. It's Katharine I'm
+thinking of."
+
+Jocelyn Thew knocked the ash from his cigar. He smiled deprecatingly at his
+companion. Certainly there was no man in that very fashionable restaurant
+who looked less like a criminal.
+
+"My dear Beverley," he expostulated, "you must remember that I am an
+exceedingly clever person. I am suspected of any number of misdemeanours. I
+will not say that there are not one or two of which I have not been guilty,
+but I have never left behind me any proof. I dare say the English police
+over here look on me sometimes just as hungrily as the New York ones. They
+feel in their hearts that I am an adventurer. They feel that I have been
+connected with some curious enterprises, both in the States and various
+other countries of the globe. They know very well that where there has been
+fighting and loot and danger, I have generally followed under my own flag.
+They know all this, but they can prove nothing against me. They can only
+watch me, and that they do wherever I am. They are watching me now, every
+hour of the day."
+
+"It isn't," the young man commenced, with a sudden break in his tone--
+
+Jocelyn shook his head.
+
+"No, my young friend," he said, "the curtain fell upon that little episode.
+I doubt whether there is even a police record of it. It isn't the lives of
+individuals I am juggling with to-day. It's the life of a nation."
+
+"Are you a spy?" Beverley asked him hoarsely.
+
+"Your sister," Jocelyn Thew pointed out, "is waiting for us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+Crawshay, having the good fortune to find, as he issued from his rooms, a
+taxicab whose driver's ideas of speed were in accordance with his own
+impatience, managed to reach the Savoy at a few minutes before eight. He
+entered the hotel by the Court entrance. An insignificant-looking young man
+with a fair moustache and watery eyes touched him on the shoulder as he
+passed through the Court lobby. Crawshay glanced lazily around and assured
+himself that they were unobserved.
+
+"Anything fresh?" he asked laconically.
+
+"Nothing. We have searched Miss Sharey's rooms thoroughly, and two of our
+men have been over Thew's apartments again."
+
+"Miss Sharey up-stairs?"
+
+The young man shook his head.
+
+"Hasn't been up for some hours," he reported.
+
+Crawshay nodded and strolled on. He left his coat and hat in charge of the
+attendant, and entered the grill room. Here, however, he met with
+disappointment. The place was crowded but his search was methodical. There
+was no sign there of Nora Sharey. He climbed the few stairs and entered the
+smoking room. Seated in an armchair, reading a novel, he discovered the
+young lady of whom he was in search.
+
+He crossed the room at a slow saunter, as though on his way to the bar, and
+paused before the girl's chair. She laid down her book and looked up at
+him. Her smile at once assured him of a welcome.
+
+"I am glad that I am not altogether forgotten, Miss Sharey," he said,
+holding out his hand which she promptly accepted. "I suppose it still is
+Miss Sharey, is it? I hope so."
+
+"I guess the name's all right," she replied. "Glad to see you don't bear
+any ill-will against me, Mr. Crawshay. You Englishmen sometimes get so
+peevish when things don't go quite your way, and you weren't saying nice
+things to me last time we met."
+
+Crawshay smiled and glanced at the seat by her side. She made room for him,
+and he subsided into the vacant space with a little sigh of content.
+
+"A man's profession," he confided, "sometimes makes large and repugnant
+demands upon him."
+
+"If that means you are sorry you were rude to me last time we met down in
+Fourteenth Street," she said, "I guess I may as well accept your apology.
+You were a trifle disappointed then, weren't you?"
+
+"We acted," Crawshay explained, with studied laboriousness,--"my friends
+and I acted, that is to say--upon inconclusive information. America at that
+time, you see, was a neutral Power, and the facilities granted us by the
+New York police were limited in their character. My department was
+thoroughly convinced that the--er--restaurant of which your father was the
+proprietor was something more than the ordinary meeting place of that
+section of your country-people who carried their enmity towards my country
+to an unreasonable extent."
+
+She looked at him admiringly.
+
+"Say, you know how to talk!" she observed. "What about getting an innocent
+girl turned out of a job at Washington, though?"
+
+Crawshay stroked his long chin reflectively.
+
+"You don't suppose," he began--
+
+"Oh, don't yarn!" she interrupted. "I'm not squealing. You knew very well
+that I'd no need to take a post as telephone operator, and you did your
+duty when you got me turned off. It was very clever of you," she went on,
+"to tumble to me."
+
+Crawshay accepted the compliment with a smile.
+
+"If you will permit me to say so, Miss Sharey," he declared, "you are what
+we call in this country a good sportsman."
+
+"Oh, I can keep on the tracks all right," she assented. "I guess I am a
+little easier to deal with, for instance, than your friend Mr. Jocelyn
+Thew."
+
+Crawshay frowned. His expression became gloomier.
+
+"I am bound to confess, Miss Sharey," he sighed, "that your friend Mr.
+Jocelyn Thew has been the disappointment of my life."
+
+"Some brains, eh?"
+
+"He has brains, courage and luck," Crawshay pronounced. "Against these
+three things it is very hard work to bring off--shall I say a _coup_?"
+
+"The man who gets the better of Jocelyn Thew," she declared, with a little
+laugh, "deserves all the nuts. He is a sure winner every time. You're up
+against him now, aren't you?"
+
+"More or less," Crawshay confessed. "I crossed on the steamer with him."
+
+"I bet that didn't do you much good!"
+
+"I lost the first game," Crawshay confessed candidly. "I see that you know
+all about it."
+
+"No need to put me wiser than I am," the girl observed carelessly. "Jocelyn
+Thew's no talker."
+
+"Not unless it serves his purpose. It is astonishing," Crawshay went on
+reflectively, "how the science of detection has changed during the last ten
+years. When I was an apprentice at it--and though you may not think it.
+Miss Sharey, I am a professional, not an amateur, although I am generally
+employed on Government business--secrecy was our watchword. We hid in
+corners, we were stealthy, we always posed as being something we weren't.
+We should have denied emphatically having the slightest interest in the
+person under surveillance. In these days, however, everything is changed.
+We play the game with the cards upon the table--all except the last two or
+three, perhaps--and curiously enough, I am not at all sure that it doesn't
+add finesse to the game."
+
+Her eyes flashed appreciatively.
+
+"You're dead right," she acknowledged. "Take us two, for instance. You know
+very well that Jocelyn Thew is a pal of mine. You know very well that I
+shall see him within the next twenty-four hours. You know very well that
+you're out to hunt him to the death, and you know that I know it. Every
+question you ask me has a purpose, yet we talk here just as chance
+acquaintances might--I, a girl whom you rather like the look of--you do
+like the look of me, don't you, Mr. Crawshay?"
+
+Crawshay had no need to be subtle. His eyes and tone betrayed his
+admiration.
+
+"I have thoroughly disliked you ever since you were too clever for me in
+New York," he confessed, "and I have been in love with you all the time."
+
+"And you," she continued, with a little gleam of appreciation in her eyes,
+"are a very pleasant-looking, smart, agreeable Englishman, who looks as
+though he knew almost enough to ask a poor girl out to dinner."
+
+Crawshay glanced at his wrist watch.
+
+"It is you who have the science of detection," he declared. "You have read
+my thoughts. Do you wish to change your clothes first, or shall we turn in
+at a grill room?"
+
+She rose promptly to her feet.
+
+"I'm all for the glad rags," she insisted. "I bought a heap of clothes in
+Bond Street this afternoon, and I don't know how many chances I shall have
+of wearing them. I am a quick dresser, and I shan't keep you more than a
+quarter of an hour. But just one moment first."
+
+Crawshay stood attentively by her side.
+
+"I am at your service," he murmured.
+
+"It's all in the game," she went on, "for you to take me out to dinner, of
+course, but I guess I needn't tell you that there's nothing doing in the
+information way. You've fixed it up in your mind, I dare say, that I am mad
+with Jocelyn Thew. I may be or I may not, but that doesn't make me any the
+more likely to come in on your side of the game."
+
+Mr. Crawshay's gesture was entirely convincing.
+
+"My dear Miss Sharey," he said softly, "I am going to take a holiday.
+Business is one thing and pleasure is another. For this evening I am going
+to put business out of my mind. The sentiment at which I hinted a few
+moments ago, has, I can assure you, a very real existence."
+
+"Hinted?" she laughed. "Guess there wasn't much hint about it. You said you
+were in love with me."
+
+"I am," Crawshay sighed.
+
+Her eyes danced joyously.
+
+"You shall tell me all about it over dinner," she declared. "I've got a
+peach of a black gown--you won't mind if I am twenty minutes?"
+
+"I shall mind every moment that you are away," Crawshay replied, "but I can
+pass the time. I will telephone and have a cocktail."
+
+She leaned towards him.
+
+"I can guess whom you are going to telephone to."
+
+"Perhaps--but not what I am going to say."
+
+"You are going to telephone to that chap with the dark
+moustache--Brightman, isn't it? I can hear you on the wire. 'Say, boys,'
+you'll begin, 'I'm on to a good thing! Everything's looking lovely. I'm
+taking little Nora Sharey, of Fourteenth Street, out to dine--girl who came
+over to Europe after Jocelyn Thew, you know. Good business, eh?'"
+
+Crawshay laughed tolerantly. The girl's humour pleased him.
+
+"You are wrong," he declared. "If I told them that, they'd expect something
+from me which I know I shan't get. You are right about the person, though.
+I am going to telephone to Brightman."
+
+"What are you going to say?" she challenged him.
+
+"I am just going to tell him," Crawshay confided, "that Jocelyn Thew is
+dining with Miss Beverley and her brother, more red roses and a corner
+table in the restaurant, and--"
+
+"Well, what else?"
+
+Crawshay hesitated.
+
+"Perhaps," he said, "if I went on I might put just one card too many on the
+table, eh?"
+
+"We'll let it go at that, then," she decided. "After all, you know, I am
+not coming exactly like a lamb to the slaughter. There are a few things
+you'd like to get to know from me about Jocelyn Thew, but there are also a
+few things I should like to worm out of you. We'll see which wins. And, Mr.
+Crawshay."
+
+"Miss Sharey?" he murmured, bending down to her as he held the door open.
+
+"I don't mind confessing that it depends a great deal upon what brand of
+champagne you fancy."
+
+"_Mum cordon rouge_?" he suggested.
+
+She made a little grimace as she turned away.
+
+"I am rather beginning to fancy your chance," she declared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+Crawshay, about half an hour later, piloted his companion to the table
+which he had engaged in the restaurant with all the _savoir faire_ of a
+redoubtable man about town. She was, in her way, an exceedingly striking
+figure in a black satin gown on which was enscrolled one immense cluster of
+flowers. Her neck and arms, very fully visible, were irreproachable. Her
+blue-black hair, simply arranged but magnificent, triumphed over the
+fashions of the coiffeur. The transition from Fourteenth Street to her
+present surroundings seemed to have been accomplished without the slightest
+hitch. She leaned forward to smell the great cluster of white roses which
+he had ordered in from the adjoining florist's.
+
+"The one flower I love," she sighed. "I always fall for white roses."
+
+Crawshay's eyes twinkled as he took his place.
+
+"Do you remember your English history?" he asked. "This is perhaps destined
+to become a battle of red and white roses--red roses at Claridge's and
+white roses here."
+
+"Which won--in history?" she asked indifferently.
+
+"That I won't tell you," he said, "in case you should be superstitious. At
+the same time, I am bound to confess that if we could both of us hear
+exactly what Jocelyn Thew is saying to-night across those red roses, I
+think perhaps that I should back the House of York."
+
+"So that's the stunt, is it?" she remarked coolly. "You want to make me
+jealous of Katharine Beverley?"
+
+"The cleverest and hardest men in the world," Crawshay observed, "generally
+meet with their Waterloo at the hands of your sex. So far as I am
+concerned, I am myself in distress. I am jealous of Jocelyn Thew."
+
+"You're bearing up!"
+
+"I am bearing up," Crawshay rejoined, "because I am hoping that with
+kindness and consideration, and with opportunity to prove to you what a
+domestic and faithful person I am, you will perceive that of the two men I
+am the more worthy."
+
+"Think something of yourself, don't you?" she observed.
+
+"I have cultivated this confidence," he told her. "In my younger days I was
+over-diffident."
+
+"Guess you're older than I thought you, then."
+
+"I am thirty-seven years old," he declared, "and I was well brought up."
+
+"Jocelyn Thew," she said reflectively, "is forty."
+
+"I did not bring you here," he declared, "to discuss the age of my unworthy
+rival. I brought you to tell me whether you consider that this _Lobster
+Americaine_ reminds you at all of Delmonico's, and to prove to you that we
+can, if we put our minds to it and speak plain and simple words to the
+_sommelier_, serve our champagne as iced even as you like it."
+
+Nora was not wanting in appreciation.
+
+"It's the best thing I've had to eat since I left New York, and for some
+time before that," she assured him. "There hasn't been much Delmonico's for
+me during the last few months. Too many of your lot poking about Fourteenth
+Street."
+
+He nodded.
+
+"After all," he said, "that was bound to come to an end when America
+declared war. You people did the only wise thing--brother to San Francisco,
+eh, your father to Chicago, and you over here?"
+
+"You do know things," she laughed.
+
+"I am a perfect dictionary as to your movements," he assured her.
+
+"Have you anything to do with the fact that my rooms have been searched by
+the police?" she asked abruptly.
+
+"Indirectly I fear so," he confessed. "You see, up to the present we
+haven't the least idea as to what has become of all those documents and
+plans which Mr. Jocelyn Thew so very cleverly brought over to this
+country."
+
+"Don't know where he's tucked them away, eh?" she enquired.
+
+"That's a fact," Crawshay confessed. "We discovered, a trifle too late, how
+they were brought over, but what has become of them since Jocelyn Thew's
+arrival in London we do not know. Every one concerned has been searched, no
+deposit has been made at any hotel or in any of the ordinary places where
+one might conceal securities. They have momentarily vanished."
+
+The girl's eyes twinkled.
+
+"Well," she exclaimed, "he does put it over you, doesn't he? I wonder
+whether you think that I am going to be any use to you--that you'll trap
+Jocelyn Thew through me?"
+
+"Not now," he answered. "I used to think so once."
+
+"Why have you changed your mind?"
+
+"Because," he told her bluntly, "I used once to think that you and he cared
+for one another."
+
+"And now?"
+
+"I have changed my mind," he admitted. "You know him so well that I need
+not remind you that where women are concerned he seems to have shown few
+signs of weakness. Personally, I have a theory that the time has come when
+he is likely to go the way of all other men."
+
+She leaned across the table. Those wonderful brown eyes of hers were lit
+with an indescribable interest. Crawshay for a moment lost the thread of
+his thoughts. They were certainly the most beautiful eyes he had ever
+looked into.
+
+"You think there is anything between those two--Katharine Beverley and
+him?"
+
+"The consideration of that point," Crawshay continued, resuming his usual
+manner, "although it lies off the track of my present investigation,
+presents some points of interest. She can be of no further use to him in
+his present scheme. She certainly would not aid him in the concealment of
+any of his spoils, nor could she become an intermediary in forwarding them
+to their destination. Yet he has sent her roses every day she has been in
+England, and dined with her two nights following. You, who know him better
+than I do, will agree that such a course is unusual with him."
+
+"But Dick Beverley is with them to-night, you told me," she reminded him.
+
+"That scarcely alters the situation," Crawshay pointed out, "because his
+coming was quite unexpected. If anything, it rather strengthens my point of
+view. Beverley is very much a young man of the world, and he probably knows
+Jocelyn Thew's reputation. He certainly would not consent to meet him in
+this friendly fashion, in company with his sister, unless the latter
+insisted."
+
+"She doesn't need to insist," Nora said, watching the champagne poured into
+her glass. "Unless you're kidding me, you don't seem to be able to see much
+further than your nose. Katharine Beverley didn't come across the Atlantic
+for her health, and Dick Beverley didn't join that little dinner party for
+nothing to-night. They both of them did as they were told, and they had to
+do it."
+
+"This, I must confess," Crawshay murmured, smoothly and mendaciously,
+"puzzles me. Your idea is, then, that Jocelyn Thew has some hold over
+them?"
+
+She laughed at him a little contemptuously.
+
+"You are not going to make me believe," she said, "that you are not wise
+about that. It isn't clever, you know, to treat me as a simpleton."
+
+"I am afraid," he confessed humbly, "that it is I who am the simpleton. You
+think, then, that the red roses are more emblematic of warfare than of
+love?"
+
+Nora shrugged her shoulders and was silent for several moments. Her
+companion changed the subject abruptly, pointed out to her several
+theatrical celebrities, told her an entertaining story, and talked nonsense
+until the smile came back to her lips. It was Nora herself who returned to
+the subject of the Beverleys, reopening it with a certain abruptness which
+showed that it had never been far from her thoughts.
+
+"See here, Mr. Crawshay," she said, "you seem to me to be wasting a lot of
+time worrying round a subject, when I don't know whether a straightforward
+question wouldn't clear it up for you. If you want to know what there is
+between those three, Jocelyn Thew and the two Beverleys, I don't know that
+I mind telling you. It's probably what you asked me to dine with you for,
+anyway."
+
+"My dear Miss Sharey!" Crawshay protested, with genuine earnestness. "I can
+assure you that I had only one object in asking you to spend the evening
+with me."
+
+She smiled at him over the glass which she had just raised to her lips.
+
+"And that?"
+
+"The pleasure of talking to you--of being with you."
+
+"You're easily satisfied."
+
+"Perhaps not so easily as I seem," he whispered, leaning a little forward
+in his place. "If only I were sure that you were not in love with Jocelyn
+Thew!"
+
+"If you think that I am," she observed, "why are you always slinging that
+Beverley girl at me?"
+
+"Perhaps," he said coolly, "to make you jealous. All's fair in love and
+war, you know."
+
+"I see. Then what you really want is to make love to me yourself? I'm
+sitting here and taking notice. Go right ahead."
+
+Crawshay let himself go for a few moments, and his companion listened to
+him approvingly.
+
+"It sounds quite like the real thing," she sighed, "but I never trust you
+Englishmen. You seem to acquire the habit of talking love to us girls just
+as easily as you drink a cocktail. You know that if I were to put my little
+hand in yours this moment across the table, you wouldn't know what to do
+with it."
+
+"Try me," Crawshay begged.
+
+She held it out--a long, rather thin, capable woman's hand, manicured a few
+hours ago in the latest fashion, but ringless. Crawshay promptly raised it
+to his lips. She snatched it away, half amused, half vexed, and glanced
+furtively around.
+
+"If you did that in an American restaurant," she told him, "you'd stand
+some chance of getting yourself laughed at."
+
+"It's quite the custom over here and on the Continent," he assured her
+equably. "It means--well, just as much as you want it to mean."
+
+She sighed and looked at her fingers reflectively.
+
+"What you'd like me to tell you, then," she suggested, raising her eyes and
+looking at him thoughtfully, "is that I've never wasted a thought on
+Jocelyn Thew, but that Mr. Reginald Crawshay is it with a capital 'I'?"
+
+"It would make me very happy," he assured her with much conviction.
+
+She laughed at him very softly. Little sparks seemed to flash from her
+eyes, and her teeth were wonderful.
+
+"You're very nice, anyway," she declared, "although I am not sure that I
+believe in you as much as I'd like to. I'll just tell you as much as I
+know. It really doesn't amount to anything. It was just after Jocelyn Thew
+had come back from Nicaragua and Dick Beverley was having a flare-up of his
+own in New York. They came together, those two, when Dick was in a tight
+corner. I don't know the story, but I know that Jocelyn Thew played the
+white man. Dick Beverley owes him perhaps his life, perhaps only his
+liberty, and his sister knows it. That's how those three stand to one
+another."
+
+"I ought to have puzzled that out myself," Crawshay said humbly.
+
+"I am not so sure," she retorted drily, "that you didn't, long ago."
+
+"Surmises are of very little interest by the side of facts," he reminded
+her. "I like to have something solid to build upon."
+
+She smiled at him appreciatively.
+
+"If I were a sentimental sort of girl," she declared, "I could take a fancy
+to you, Mr. Crawshay."
+
+"Now you're laughing at me," he protested. "However, I'm going right on
+with it and then we will dismiss all serious subjects. Miss Beverley has
+certainly quit herself of any obligation to Jocelyn Thew. Richard Beverley
+is no longer free. Besides, he has only a couple of days in England, so
+there's very little chance of his being of use. Yet," he continued
+impressively, "I happen to know that every hour just now is of the greatest
+importance to Jocelyn Thew. Why does he spend another entire evening with
+these two?"
+
+"Say, which of us is the detective--you or me?" she demanded.
+
+"Professionally, I suppose I am," he admitted. "Just now, however, I
+consider myself as indulging in the relaxation of private life."
+
+She leaned across the table towards him, her chin supported by her clenched
+hands.
+
+"Then relax all you want to," she begged, with a smile of invitation.
+"We'll drop the other stunt, if you don't mind. And please remember, though
+I've never enjoyed a dinner more in my life, that we don't want to be too
+late for the Empire."
+
+Crawshay returned to his rooms about one o'clock the next morning, with his
+hat a little on the back of his head, and wearing, very much against his
+prejudice, a white rose in his buttonhole. Brightman, who was awaiting him
+there, looked up eagerly at his entrance.
+
+"Any luck, Mr. Crawshay?"
+
+Crawshay laid his hat and coat upon the table and mixed himself a whisky
+and soda.
+
+"I am not sure," he replied thoughtfully. "Are you any good at English
+history, Brightman?"
+
+"I won an exhibition in my younger days," the detective replied. "I used to
+consider myself rather great on history."
+
+"Who won the Wars of the Roses?"
+
+"The Lancastrians, of course."
+
+Crawshay nodded.
+
+"They were the chaps with the red roses, weren't they?" he observed.
+"Brightman, I fancy we are going to reverse that. I am laying five to one
+that I've found out how Jocelyn Thew counts on getting his spoils into
+Germany."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+The dinner of the red roses, as though in emulation of its rival
+entertainment, seemed on its way to complete success. Jocelyn Thew, from
+whose manner there seemed to have departed much of the austerity of the
+previous evening, had never been a more brilliant companion. He, who spoke
+so seldom of his own doings, told story after story of his wanderings in
+distant countries, until even Katharine lost her fears of the situation and
+abandoned herself to the enjoyment of the moment. His tone was kindlier and
+his manner more natural. He spoke with regret of Richard Beverley's
+departure in a couple of days, and only once did he hint at anything in the
+least disturbing.
+
+"Wonderful feat, that of you flying men," he remarked, "dropping ten
+thousand copies of Wilson's speech over the German lines. I am not sure
+that it isn't rather a dangerous precedent, though."
+
+"Why dangerous?" Katharine enquired.
+
+"Because," he answered coolly, "it might suggest a possible means of
+communication with Germany to a person, say, like myself."
+
+"But you are not a flying man," Katharine reminded him.
+
+He smiled.
+
+"It would not be necessary," he observed, "for me to be my own messenger."
+
+There was a brief and rather a blank silence. The shadow of a new fear had
+arisen in Katharine's heart. The brother and sister exchanged quick
+glances.
+
+"I believe I am right," their host went on, a few minutes later, "in
+presuming that you have told Richard here the details of our little
+adventure upon the _City of Boston_?"
+
+"I have told him everything," Katharine acknowledged. "You don't mind that,
+do you? I felt that I had to."
+
+"You were quite right," Jocelyn Thew assented. "There is no reason for you
+to keep anything secret from Richard."
+
+The young man was conscious of a sudden recrudescence of anger, the flaming
+up again of his first resentment.
+
+"The whole thing was a rotten business, Thew," he declared. "I should never
+have resented your making use of me in any way you wished, but to make a
+tool of Katharine--"
+
+"My dear fellow," Jocelyn Thew interrupted, smoothly but with a dangerous
+glitter in his eyes, "please don't go on. I have an idea that you were
+going to say something offensive. Better not. Your sister came to no real
+harm. She never ran any real risk."
+
+"It depends upon the way you look at these things," the young man replied
+gloomily. "Katharine tells me that she is watched at her hotel day and
+night, and that she has come under the suspicion of the Government for
+being concerned in this affair."
+
+"That really isn't of much account," the other assured him. "You yourself,"
+he went on, "came very nearly under suspicion once for something infinitely
+more serious."
+
+It was a chill note in the warmth of their festivities. Katharine glanced
+reproachfully at her host, and he seemed to realise at once his lapse.
+
+"Forgive me, both of you," he begged. "I fear that I am a little irritable
+to-night. This constant espionage gets on one's nerves. Look at them all
+around us,--Crawshay in the corner, trying his best to get something
+incriminating out of Nora Sharey; Brightman smoking a cigar out there, with
+his eyes wandering all the time through the glass screen towards this
+table; and the young man who seemed to haunt your hotel, Miss
+Beverley--Henshaw I believe his name is--you see him dining there with his
+back turned ostentatiously towards us and a little pocket mirror by his
+side. There are three pairs of eyes that scarcely ever leave us. I don't
+know whether they expect me to produce my spoils from my pocket and lay
+them upon the table, or whether one of them is a student of the lip
+language and hopes to learn the secrets of our conversation. Bah! They are
+very stupid, this professional potpourri of secret-service agents and
+detectives. Can't you hear them, how they will whisper in the lobby after
+we have left? 'Jocelyn Thew is entertaining a young Flying Corps man on
+leave from the front, the brother of Miss Beverley, who has already helped
+him. What does that mean?' Then they will put their fingers to their noses
+and you, too, will probably be watched, Dick. They will congratulate
+themselves upon possessing the subtlety of the Devil. They will see through
+my scheme. They will say--'This young man is to drop the documents behind
+the German lines!' Don't be alarmed, Richard, if you find a secret service
+man in your bedroom when you get home to-night."
+
+Katharine laughed almost joyously.
+
+"Then you're not going to ask Dick to do anything of that sort?" she
+demanded, her tone indicating an immense relief.
+
+He smiled.
+
+"I am not going to ask your brother to do anything which is so palpably
+obvious," he replied. "His help I am certainly going to engage, but in a
+manner which is very unlikely to bring trouble upon him. I promise you
+that."
+
+She suddenly leaned across the table. The cloud had passed from her
+features, the dull weight from her heart. Her eyes were more eloquent even
+than her tremulous lips.
+
+"Mr. Thew," she said, "do you know that I have always had one conviction
+about you, and that is that all these strange adventures in which you have
+taken part--some of them, as you yourself have acknowledged, more
+creditable than others--you have entered into chiefly from that spirit of
+adventure, just the spirit in which Dick here," she added with a little
+shiver, "made his mistake. Why can't you satisfy that part of your nature
+as Dick is doing? This war, upon which we Americans looked so coldly at
+first, has become almost a holy war, a twentieth-century crusade. Why don't
+you join one of these irregular forces and fight?"
+
+Then they both witnessed what they had never before seen in Jocelyn Thew.
+They saw his eyes blaze with a sudden concentrated fury. They saw his lips
+part and something that was almost a snarl transform and disfigure his
+mouth.
+
+"Fight for England?" he exclaimed bitterly. "I would sooner cut off my
+right hand!"
+
+His words left them at first speechless. He, too, after his little outburst
+seemed shaken, lacking in his usual _sangfroid_. It was Katharine who first
+recovered herself.
+
+"But you are English?" she protested wonderingly.
+
+"Am I?" he replied. "Will you forgive me if I beg you to change the
+subject?"
+
+The subject was effectually changed for them by the advent of some of
+Richard Beverley's brothers in arms. It was some time before they passed
+on. Then a little note almost of tragedy concluded the feast. A tall and
+elderly man, gaunt, with sunken cheeks, silver-white hair, complexion
+curiously waxen, and big, dark eyes, left the table where he had been
+sitting with a few Americans and came over towards them. His advance was
+measured, almost abnormally slow. His manner would have been melodramatic
+but for its intense earnestness. He stood at their table for a few seconds
+before speaking, his eyes fixed upon Jocelyn Thew's in a curious, almost
+unnatural stare.
+
+"You will forgive me," he said. "I must be speaking to Sir Denis Cathley?"
+
+Neither of the two young people, who were filled with wonder at the strange
+appearance of the newcomer, noticed Jocelyn Thew's sudden grip of the
+tablecloth, the tightening of his frame, the ominous contraction of his
+eyebrows as for a moment he sat there speechless. Then he was himself
+again. He shook his head courteously.
+
+"I am afraid," he replied, "that you must be making some mistake. My name
+is Jocelyn Thew."
+
+"And mine," the stranger announced, "is Michael Dilwyn. Is that name known
+to you?"
+
+"Perfectly well," Jocelyn Thew acknowledged. "I was present at the
+production of your last play in New York. I have since read with much
+regret," he went on courteously, "of the losses you have sustained."
+
+The old man's wonderful eyes flashed for a moment.
+
+"They are losses I am proud to endure, sir," he said. "But I did not come
+to speak of myself. I came to speak to Sir Denis Cathley."
+
+Jocelyn Thew shook his head.
+
+"It is a likeness which deceives you," he declared.
+
+"A likeness!" the other repeated. "Nine weeks ago I stood in a ruined
+mansion--so dilapidated, in fact, that one corner of it is open to the
+skies. I listened to the roar of the Atlantic as I heard it in the same
+place fifty years ago. A herdsman and his wife, perhaps a girl or two, live
+somewhere in the back quarters. The only apartment in any sort of
+preservation is the one sometimes called the picture gallery and sometimes
+the banqueting hall. You should visit this ruined mansion, sir. You should
+visit it before you give me the lie when I call you Sir Denis Cathley."
+
+Jocelyn Thew's hand for a moment shielded part of his face, as though he
+found the electric light a little strong. From behind the shelter of his
+palm his eyes met the eyes of his visitor. The latter suddenly turned and
+bowed to Katharine.
+
+"You will forgive an old man," he begged courteously, "who has seen much
+trouble lately, for his ill manners. Perhaps your friend here, your friend
+whose name is not Sir Denis Cathley, can explain to you why I felt some
+emotion at the sight of so wonderful a likeness."
+
+He bowed, murmured some broken words in reply to Katharine's kindly little
+speech, and moved away. Jocelyn Thew's eyes watched him with a curious
+softness.
+
+"Yes," he acknowledged, "I can tell you why, if he really saw a likeness in
+me to the person he spoke of, it might remind him of strange things. You
+know him by name, of course--Michael Dilwyn?"
+
+"He wrote the wonderful Sinn Fein play, 'The New Green,' didn't he?"
+Katharine asked eagerly. "I heard you mention it to him. My aunt and I were
+there at the first night."
+
+"He wrote that and some more wonderful poetry. He has spent more than half
+his life working for the cause of Ireland. He was the father and patriarch
+of the last rising. One of his sons was shot at Dublin."
+
+"And who is Sir Denis Cathley?"
+
+"The Cathleys are another so-called revolutionary family," Jocelyn Thew
+explained. "The late Sir Denis, the father of the man whom he supposed me
+to be, was Michael Dilwyn's closest friend. They, too, have paid a heavy
+price for their patriotism or their rebellious instincts, whichever way you
+choose to look at the matter."
+
+"I think," Katharine declared, "that Mr. Dilwyn is the most
+picturesque-looking man I ever saw. I don't believe that even now he is
+altogether convinced as to your identity."
+
+"He has probably reached an age," was the cool reply, "when his memory
+begins to suffer.--Ah! I see our friend Crawshay is taking counsel with
+Henshaw. They are looking in this direction. Richard, my young friend, you
+are in a bad way. Suspicion is beginning to fasten upon you. Believe me,
+one of my parasites will be on your track to-night. I can almost convince
+myself as to their present subject of conversation. They are preening
+themselves upon having seen through my subtle scheme. I am very sure they
+are asking themselves--'When is the transfer of documents to take place?'"
+
+"It may all seem very humorous to you," the young man remarked, a little
+sullenly, "but it leaves a sort of nasty flavour in one's mouth, all the
+same. If they were to suspect me of trying to drop documents over the
+German lines except under instructions, it would mean a court-martial, even
+though they were unable to prove anything, and a firing party in five
+minutes if they were."
+
+"Take heart, my young friend," Jocelyn Thew advised him, "and do not refuse
+the Courvoisier brandy which our saintly friend with the chain is
+proffering. If it is not indeed a relic of the Napoleonic era, it is at
+least drinkable. And listen--this may help you to drink it with zest--I am
+not going to ask you to drop any documents over the German lines."
+
+The thankfulness in Katharine's face was reflected in her brother's.
+
+"Thank God for that!" he exclaimed, helping himself liberally to the
+brandy. "You know I'd find it hard to refuse you anything, Thew, but there
+are limits. Besides, you are never really out of sight there. We go out in
+squadrons, and from the height we fly at nothing I could drop would be very
+likely to reach its destination."
+
+Jocelyn Thew smiled coldly.
+
+"My dear Richard," he said, "I am not going to make you an unwilling
+partner in any foolhardy scheme such as you are thinking of, because that
+is just the Obvious thing that our friends who take so much interest in us
+would expect and prepare for. All the same, there is just a trifling
+commission which I will ask you to undertake for me, and which I will
+explain to you later. When do you leave?"
+
+"Ten o'clock train from Charing Cross on Monday night," the young man
+replied. "I have to fly on Tuesday morning."
+
+"Then if it pleases you we will all dine here that night," Jocelyn Thew
+suggested, "and I will take you on to the Alhambra for an hour. Doctor Gant
+and I were there our first night in town, and we found the performance
+excellent. You will honour me, Miss Beverley?"
+
+"I shall be delighted," she answered, "but I am not at all sure that you
+will be able to get seats at the Alhambra."
+
+"Why not?" he asked.
+
+"There is a great benefit performance there on Monday night," she told him.
+"The house is closed now for rehearsals. All the stalls have gone already,
+and the boxes are to be sold by auction at the Theatrical Fete."
+
+Jocelyn Thew was for a moment grave.
+
+"I am very glad that you told me this," he said, "but I think that I can
+nevertheless promise you the stage box for Monday night. I have a call on
+it. We must all meet once more. It is just possible that I may have a
+pleasant surprise for both of you."
+
+"Do give us an idea what it is," she begged.
+
+He shook his head. Somehow, since the coming of Michael Dilwyn, a tired
+look had crept into his eyes. He seemed to have lost all his old vivacity.
+He had paid the bill some time before and they strolled together now into
+the lounge. Katharine was carrying half a dozen of the roses, which the
+waiter had pressed into her hand.
+
+"To-night," she said, looking up into his face and dropping her voice a
+little, "I am feeling so much happier--happier than I have felt for a long
+time. Why do you keep us both, Mr. Thew, in such a state of uneasiness? You
+give us so little of your real confidence, so little of your real self.
+Sometimes it seems as though you deliberately try to make yourself out a
+harder, crueller person than you really are. Why do you do that?"
+
+For a moment she fancied that the impossible had happened, that she had
+penetrated the armour of that steadfast and studied indifference.
+
+"We are all just a little the fools of circumstance," he sighed. "A will to
+succeed sometimes, if it is strong enough, crushes out things we would like
+to keep alive."
+
+She thrust one of the blossoms which she was carrying through his
+buttonhole.
+
+"I know you will hate that," she whispered, "but you can take it out the
+moment you have gotten rid of us. Dick and I are going on now, you know, to
+the Esholt House dance. Shall I thank you for your dinner?"
+
+"Or I you for your company?" he murmured, bowing over her fingers.
+
+They took their leave, and Jocelyn Thew, almost as though against his will,
+walked back into the foyer, after a few minutes of hesitation, and sat
+there twirling the rose between his fingers, with his eyes fixed upon the
+interior of the restaurant. He had the air of one waiting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+Crawshay was awakened the next morning a little before the customary hour
+by his servant, who held out a card.
+
+"Gentleman would like a word with you at once, sir," the latter announced.
+
+Crawshay glanced at the card, slipped out of bed, and, attired in his
+dressing gown and slippers, made an apologetic entrance into the sitting
+room. The young man who was waiting there received him kindly, but
+obviously disapproved of the pattern of his dressing gown.
+
+"Chief wants a word with you, sir," he announced. "He is keeping from ten
+to ten-thirty."
+
+"I will be there," Crawshay promised, "on the stroke of ten."
+
+"Then I need not detain you further," his visitor remarked, making a
+graceful exit.
+
+Crawshay bathed, shaved and breakfasted, and at five minutes before ten
+entered an imposing-looking building and sent up his card to a very great
+man, who had a fancy for being spoken of in his department as Mr. Brown.
+After a very brief delay, he was admitted to the august presence. Mr. Brown
+waved his secretaries from the room, shook hands kindly with Crawshay and
+motioned him to a chair close to his own.
+
+"Mr. Crawshay," he said, "this is the first time I have had the pleasure of
+meeting you, but we have received at various times excellent reports as to
+your work at Washington."
+
+"I am very pleased to hear it, sir."
+
+"From what I gather as to the present situation, however," the great man
+continued, "I imagine that you were more successful in the conventional
+secret service work than you have been in the very grave business I have
+sent for you to discuss."
+
+"I should like to point out, sir," Crawshay begged, "that that foolish
+journey to Halifax was undertaken entirely against my convictions. I
+protested at the time! Neither had I any confidence in the summons to
+Chicago."
+
+Mr. Brown took the circumstance into gracious consideration.
+
+"I am glad to hear that," he said, "and I must admit that your recovery was
+almost brilliant. A sense of humour," he went on, "sometimes obtrudes
+itself into the most serious incidents, and the idea of your boarding that
+steamer from a seaplane and then getting to work upon your investigations
+will always remain to me one of the priceless unrecorded incidents of the
+war. But to put the matter into plain words, our enemies got the better of
+you."
+
+"Absolutely," was the honest confession.
+
+"There is no doubt," the right honourable gentleman continued, "that the
+person who took charge of this affair is exceedingly clever. He appears to
+have resource and daring. Personally, I, like you, never believed for a
+moment that the whole of the records of German espionage in America for the
+last three years, would be found upon the same steamer as that by which the
+departing ambassadorial staff travelled. However, I can quite see that
+under the circumstances you had to yield to the convictions of those who
+were already in charge of the affair."
+
+"You have had full reports, sir, I suppose?" Crawshay asked. "You know the
+manner in which the documents were brought into this country?"
+
+"A ghastly business," Mr. Brown acknowledged, "ingenious but ghastly. Yes,
+Mr. Crawshay," he went on, "I think I have been kept pretty well posted up
+till now. I have sent for you because I am not sure whether one point has
+been sufficiently impressed upon you. As you are of course aware, there are
+many documents and details connected with this propaganda which are of
+immense value to the police of New York, but there is just one--a letter
+written in a moment of impulse by one great personage to another, and
+stolen--which might do the cause of the Allies incalculable harm if it were
+to fall into the wrong hands."
+
+"I had a hint of this, sir. Mason knew of it, too. His idea was that they
+would be quite willing to destroy all the rest of the treasonable stuff
+they have, if they could be sure of getting this one letter through."
+
+"The documents have been in England now," Mr. Brown observed, "for some
+days. Have you formed any theory at all as to where they may be concealed?"
+
+"To be perfectly frank," Crawshay confessed, "I have not. Doctor Gant,
+Jocelyn Thew, a young woman called Nora Sharey, and Miss Beverley are the
+four people possibly implicated in their disappearance, although of these
+two I consider Miss Sharey and Miss Beverley out of the question.
+Nevertheless, their rooms and every scrap of property they possess have
+been searched thoroughly, and their movements since they arrived in London
+are absolutely tabulated. Not one of them has written a letter or
+dispatched a parcel which has not been investigated, nor have they made a
+call or even entered a shop without being watched. It seems absolutely
+impossible that they can have taken any steps towards the disposal of the
+documents since Jocelyn Thew arrived in London."
+
+"Have they given any indication of their future plans?"
+
+"Doctor Gant," Crawshay replied, "has booked a passage back in the American
+boat which sails for Liverpool early to-morrow morning. We shall escort him
+there, and his effects will be searched once more in Liverpool. Otherwise,
+we have no intention of detaining him. He and Miss Beverley were simply the
+tools of the other man."
+
+"And the other man?"
+
+"He has shown no signs of making any move whatsoever. He lives, to all
+appearance, the perfectly normal life of a man of leisure. I understand
+that he is entirely a newcomer to this sort of business, but he is, without
+a doubt, the most modern thing in secret service. He lives quite openly at
+a small suite in the Savoy Court. He never makes the slightest concealment
+about any of his movements. We know how he has spent every second of his
+time since we first took up the search, and I can assure you that there is
+not a single suspicious incident recorded against him."
+
+"You are satisfied," Mr. Brown asked, "with the aid which you are getting
+from Scotland Yard?"
+
+"Absolutely," Crawshay declared. "Brightman, too--the man who came down
+with me from Liverpool--has done excellent work."
+
+"And notwithstanding all this," was the somewhat grave criticism, "you have
+not the slightest idea where these documents are to be found?"
+
+"Not the slightest," Crawshay confessed. "All that I do feel convinced of
+is that they have not left the country."
+
+The great man leaned back a little wearily in his chair. There were some
+decoded cables, lying under a paper weight by his side, imploring him in
+the strongest possible terms to make use of every means within his power to
+solve this mystery,--a personal appeal from a man whose good will might
+sway the balance of the future. He was used to wonderful service in every
+department he controlled. His present sense of impotence was galling.
+
+"Tell me, Mr. Crawshay," he asked, "how long was the gap of time between
+your losing sight of Jocelyn Thew and when you picked him up in London?"
+
+"Very short indeed," was the emphatic reply. "Jocelyn Thew must have left
+the _City of Boston_ at about eight o'clock on Monday morning. He met Gant
+at five o'clock that evening at Crewe station. Gant had come direct from
+Frisby, the little village near Chester where he had left the body of
+Phillips. It is obvious, therefore, that Gant had the papers with him when
+he joined Jocelyn Thew. They travelled to London together but parted at
+Euston, Gant going to a cheap hotel in the vicinity of Regent Street,
+whilst Thew drove to the Savoy. Gant called at the Savoy Hotel at nine
+o'clock that evening, and the two men dined together in the grill room and
+took a box at a music hall--the Alhambra. Up to this time neither of them
+had received a visitor or dispatched a message--Thew, in fact, had spent
+more than an hour in the barber's shop. They returned from the Alhambra
+together, went up to Thew's rooms, had a drink and separated half an hour
+later. This, of course, is in a sense posthumous information, but Scotland
+Yard have it tabulated down to the slightest detail, and we are unable to
+find a single suspicious circumstance in connection with the movements of
+either man. At four o'clock the following morning, when both men were
+asleep in their rooms, the cordon was drawn around them. Since then they
+haven't had a chance."
+
+"The fact that the papers are not in the possession of either of them," Mr.
+Brown said reflectively, "proves that they made some move of which you have
+no record."
+
+"Precisely," Crawshay agreed, "but it must have been a move of so slight a
+character that chance may reveal it to us at any moment."
+
+"Describe Jocelyn Thew to me," Mr. Brown begged.
+
+"He has every appearance," Crawshay declared, "of being a man of breeding.
+He is scarcely middle-aged--tall and of athletic build. He dresses well,
+speaks well, and I should take him anywhere for an English public school
+and college man."
+
+"Did New York give you his record?"
+
+"In a cloudy sort of way. He seems to have had a most interesting career,
+ranching out West, fighting in Mexico, fighting in several of the Central
+American states, and fighting, I shrewdly suspect, against England in South
+Africa. He seems to have been a sort of stormy petrel, and to have turned
+up in any place where there was trouble. In New York the police always
+suspected him of being connected with some great criminal movements, but
+they were never able to lay even a finger upon him. He lived at one of the
+best hotels in the city, disappeared sometimes for days, sometimes for
+weeks, sometimes for a year, but always returned quite quietly, with
+apparently any amount of money to spend, and that queer look which comes to
+a man who has been up against big things."
+
+"He is an Englishman, I suppose?"
+
+"He must be. His accent and manners and appearance are all unmistakable."
+
+"How long was he suspected of being in the pay of our enemies before this
+thing transpired?"
+
+"Only a very short time. There was a little gang in New York--Rentoul, the
+man who had the wireless in Fifth Avenue, was in it--and they used to meet
+at a place in Fourteenth Street, belonging to an old man named Sharey.
+That's where Miss Sharey comes into the business. There were some queer
+things done there, but they don't concern this business, and New York has
+the records of them."
+
+"Jocelyn Thew," Mr. Brown repeated slowly to himself. "Where did you say he
+was staying?"
+
+"At the Savoy Court."
+
+Mr. Brown looked fixedly at the cables, fluttering a little in the breeze
+which blew in through the half-open window.
+
+"All this isn't very encouraging, Mr. Crawshay," he sighed.
+
+"Up to the present no," the former admitted. "Yet I can promise you one
+thing, sir. Those papers shall not leave the country."
+
+"I am glad to hear you speak with so much confidence," Mr. Brown observed
+drily. "Mr. Jocelyn Thew seems at any rate to have managed to secrete them
+without difficulty."
+
+"That may be so," Crawshay acknowledged, "and yet I am convinced of one
+thing. They are disposed of in some perfectly obvious way, and within the
+next forty-eight hours he will make some effort to repossess himself of
+them. If he does, he will fail."
+
+Mr. Brown glanced at his watch.
+
+"I am very much obliged to you for coming to see me," he said. "You are
+doing your best, I know, and I beg you, Mr. Crawshay, never for a moment to
+let your efforts relax. The mechanical side of the watch that is being kept
+upon these people I know we can rely upon, but you must remember that you
+are the brains of this enterprise. Your little band of watchers will be
+quiet enough to see the things that happen and the things that exist. It is
+you who must watch for the things which don't happen."
+
+Crawshay smiled slightly as he rose to take his leave.
+
+"I do not as a rule suffer from over-confidence, sir," he said, "but I
+think I can promise you that by Wednesday night not only will the papers be
+in our hands, but Mr. Jocelyn Thew will be so disposed of that he will be
+no longer an object of anxiety to us."
+
+"Get on with the good work, then," was Mr. Brown's laconic farewell.
+
+Late on the following afternoon, Jocelyn Thew and Gant paced the long
+platform at Euston, by the side of which the special for the American boat
+was already drawn up. Curiously enough, in their immediate vicinity Mr.
+Brightman was also seeing a friend off, and on the outskirts of the little
+throng Mr. Henshaw was taking an intelligent interest in the scene.
+
+"Perhaps, after all," Jocelyn Thew declared, "you are right to go. You have
+been very useful, and you have, without a doubt, earned your thousand
+pounds."
+
+"It was easy money," the other admitted, "but even now I am nervous. I
+shall be glad to be back once more in my own country."
+
+"You are certainly right to go," the other repeated. "If you had been
+different, if you had been one of those men after my own heart," Jocelyn
+Thew went on, resting his hand for a moment upon Gant's shoulder, "one of
+those who, apart from thought of gain or hope of profit, love adventure for
+its own sake, I should have begged you to stay with me. I would have sent
+you on bogus errands to mysterious places. I would have twisted the brains
+of those who have fastened upon us in a hundred different fashions. But
+alas, my friend, you are not like that!"
+
+"I am not," Gant admitted, gruffly but heartily. "I have done a job for
+you, and you have paid me very well. I am glad to have done it, because I
+love Germany and I do not love England. Apart from that my work is
+finished. I like to go home. I am happiest with my wife and family."
+
+"Quite so," his companion agreed. "I know your type, Gant,--in fact, I
+chose you because of it. You like, as you say, to do your job and finish
+with it,--and you have finished."
+
+The doctor turned for a moment deliberately round and looked at his
+companion. He was a heavy-browed, unimaginative, quiet-living man. The
+things which passed before his eyes counted with him, and little else. The
+thousand pounds which he was taking home was more than he had been able to
+save throughout his life. To him it represented immense things. He would
+probably not spend a dollar more, or indulge in a single luxury, yet the
+money was there in the background, a warm, comforting thing.
+
+"You have still," he said, "a desperate part to play. Can you tell me
+honestly that you enjoy it, that you have no fear?"
+
+Jocelyn Thew repeated the word almost wonderingly.
+
+"Fear! Do you really know me so little, my friend of few perceptions?
+Listen and I will confess something. I have fought for my life at least a
+dozen times, fought against odds which seemed almost hopeless. I have seen
+death with hungry, outstretched arms, within a few seconds' reach of me,
+but I have never felt fear. I do not know what it is. The length of one's
+life is purely a relative thing. It will come in ten or twenty years, if
+not to-morrow. Why not to-morrow?"
+
+"If you put it like that," Gant grunted, "why not to-day?"
+
+"Or at any moment, if you will. I am quite ready, as ready as I ever shall
+be. If I fail to bring off what I desire within the next few days, there
+will be an end of me. Do I look as though I were worrying about that?"
+
+"You don't indeed," the doctor agreed. "You ought to have been in my
+profession. You might have become the greatest surgeon in the world."
+
+Jocelyn Thew shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Even that is possible," he admitted. "Unfortunately, there was a cloud
+over my early days, a cloud heavy enough even to prevent my offering my
+services to the world through the medium of any of the recognized
+professions. So you see, Gant, I had to invent one of my own. What would
+you call it, I wonder?--Buccaneer? Adventurer? Explorer? Perhaps my enemies
+would find a more unkind word.--Now you had better step in and take your
+seat. Behold the creatures of our friend Brightman and the satellites of
+the aristocratic Crawshay close in upon us! They listen for farewell words.
+Is this your carriage? Very well. Here comes your porter, hungry for
+remuneration. Shall I give them a hint, Gant?"
+
+There flashed in the hunted man's eyes for a moment a gleam of almost
+demoniacal humour.
+
+Gant glowered at him. "You are mad!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Not I, my dear friend," Jocelyn Thew assured him, as he gripped his hand
+in a farewell salute. "Believe me, it is not I who am mad. It is these
+stupid people who search for what they can never find. They lift up the
+Stars and Stripes and find nothing. They lift up the Union Jack; again
+nothing. They try the Tricolour; _rien de tout_. But if they have the sense
+to try the Crescent--eh, Gant?--Well, a safe voyage to you, man. Sleep in
+your waistcoat, and remember me to every one in New York. I can't promise
+when I shall be back. I have taken a fancy to England. Still, one never
+knows.--Good-by."
+
+Thew watched the long train crawl out of the station, waved his hand in
+farewell, forced a greeting upon the reluctant Brightman, whom he passed
+examining the magazines upon a bookstall, and, summoning a taxi, was duly
+deposited at the Alhambra Theatre. He made his way to the box office.
+
+"I have called," he explained to the young man, "to see you about Box A on
+Monday night. I understand that there is a benefit performance."
+
+"Quite so, sir," the young man replied, "and I ought to have explained the
+matter to you at the time, when you engaged the box. If you will remember,
+although you took it for a week, you only paid for five nights. I omitted
+to tell you that for Monday night the box is not ours to dispose of."
+
+"It isn't yet sold, I hope?"
+
+"Not yet, sir. The boxes will be disposed of by auction to-morrow afternoon
+at the Theatrical Garden Party. Mr. Bobby is going to act as auctioneer."
+
+"I see," Jocelyn Thew said thoughtfully. "The performance is, I believe, on
+behalf of the Red Cross?"
+
+"That is so."
+
+"In that case, supposing I offer you now one hundred guineas for the box?"
+
+"Very generous indeed, sir," the young man admitted, "but we are pledged to
+allow all the boxes to be sold by Mr. Bobby. I think that if you are
+prepared to go to that sum, you will have no difficulty in securing it."
+
+Jocelyn Thew frowned slightly.
+
+"I wasn't thinking of going to the Theatrical Garden Party," he remarked.
+
+"You could perhaps get a friend to bid for you, sir," the young man
+suggested. "We hope to get fifty guineas for the large boxes, but I should
+think an offer such as yours would secure any one of them."
+
+"I rather dislike the publicity of an auction," Jocelyn Thew observed, as
+he turned to take his leave. "However, if charity demands it, I suppose one
+must waive one's prejudices."
+
+He strolled out and hesitated for a moment on the pavement. A curious
+change had taken place in what a few hours ago had seemed to be a perfect
+summer day. The clouds were thick in the sky, a few drops of rain were
+already falling, and a cold wind, like the presage of a storm, was bending
+the trees in the square. For a single moment he was conscious of an
+unsuspected weakness. A wave of depression swept in upon him. An
+unreasoning premonition of failure laid a cold hand upon his heart. He met
+the careless gaze of an apparent loiterer who was studying the placards
+without derision, almost with apprehension. Then he ground his heel into
+the pavement and re-entered his taxicab.
+
+"Savoy," he directed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+Captain Richard Beverley, on his way through the hotel smoking room to the
+Savoy bar, stopped short. He looked at the girl who had half risen from her
+seat on the couch with a sudden impulse of half startled recognition. Her
+little smile of welcome was entirely convincing.
+
+"Why, it's Nora Sharey!" he exclaimed. "Nora!"
+
+"Well, I am glad you've recognised me at last," she said, laughing. "I
+tried to make you see me last night in the restaurant, but you wouldn't
+look."
+
+He seemed a little dazed, even after he had saluted mechanically, held her
+hand for a moment and sank into the place by her side.
+
+"Nora Sharey!" he repeated. "Why, it was really you, then, dining last
+night with that fellow Crawshay?"
+
+"Of course it was," she replied, "and I recognised you at once, even in
+your uniform."
+
+"You know that Jocelyn Thew is here? You saw him with us last night?"
+
+"Yes, I know."
+
+"Stop a moment," Richard Beverley went on. "Let me think, Nora. Jocelyn
+Thew must have seen you dining with Crawshay. How does that work out?"
+
+"He doesn't mind," she replied. "Let that stuff alone for a time. I want to
+look at you. You're fine, Dick, but what does it all mean?"
+
+"I couldn't stick the ranch after the war broke out," he confessed. "I
+moved up into Canada and took on flying."
+
+"You are fighting out there in France?"
+
+"Have been for six months. Some sport, I can tell you, Nora. I've got a
+little machine gun that's a perfect daisy. Gee! I've got to pull up. The
+hardest work we fellows have sometimes is to remember that we mustn't talk
+about our job. They used to call me undisciplined. I'm getting it into my
+bones now, though.--Why, Nora, this is queer! I guess we're going to have a
+cocktail together, aren't we?"
+
+She nodded. He called to a waiter and gave an order. Then he turned and
+looked at her appreciatively.
+
+"You're looking fine," he declared.
+
+She smiled with pleasure at the undoubted admiration in his tone. In the
+new and fashionable clothes which she had purchased during the last few
+days, the artistically coiffured hair, the smart hat and
+carefully-thought-out details of her toilette, she was a transformed being,
+in no way different from the half a dozen other young ladies who were
+gathered with their escorts at the further end of the room.
+
+"I am glad you think so," she replied. "Seems to me I've had nothing else
+to do since I got here but buy frocks and things."
+
+He looked at her in a puzzled fashion.
+
+"You didn't come over with Jocelyn Thew, did you, Nora?" "Of course I
+didn't," she answered indignantly. "If you want to know the truth, it
+looked as though there was going to be trouble at Fourteenth Street. Dad
+made a move out West, and I had a fancy for making a little trip this way."
+
+"Kind of lonesome, isn't it?" he asked.
+
+"In a way," she sighed. "Still, I am going on presently to where I fancy I
+shall meet a few friends."
+
+"And meanwhile," he remarked, "you are still friendly with Jocelyn Thew,
+and you dined last night, didn't you, with the man who has sworn to hunt
+him down?"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"You know what I think of Jocelyn Thew," she said. "I'm crazy about him,
+and always shall be, but I've never seen him look twice at a woman yet in
+his life, and never expect to. Dick!"
+
+"Yes, Nora?"
+
+"May I ask you a question--straight?"
+
+"Of course!"
+
+"Don't think I mean to say a word against Jocelyn Thew. He's a white man
+through and through, and I think if there was any woman in the world he
+cared for, she would be his slave. But he's a desperate man. Even now the
+police are trying to draw their net around him. It was all very well for
+you, when you were painting New York red, to choose your friends where it
+pleased you, but your sister--she's different, isn't she?--what they call
+over on our side a society belle. I am not saying that there is a single
+person in the world too good for Jocelyn Thew to sit down with, but at the
+present moment--well, he's hard up against it. Things might happen to him,
+you know, Dick."
+
+For a moment the young man was silent. His eyes seemed to look through the
+walls of the room, seemed to conjure up some spectre from which a moment
+later he shrank.
+
+"You see, Nora," he explained, dropping his voice a little, "there was just
+one time when Jocelyn Thew stood by me like a brick. I was hard up against
+it and he saved me."
+
+She leaned a little closer to him.
+
+"I have often wondered," she murmured. "That was the affair down at the
+Murchison country house, wasn't it?"
+
+Richard Beverley assented silently.
+
+"Guess we'll drink these cocktails," he said, watching the waiter approach.
+"Flying takes something out of you all the time, you know, Nora, and
+although when I am up my nerves are like a rock, I sometimes feel a little
+shaky at leave time."
+
+"Drink?" she asked tersely.
+
+"I've quit that more or less," he assured her. "Still, I have been taking
+some these last few days. Finding Katharine over here with Jocelyn Thew
+hanging around gave me kind of a shock."
+
+"You weren't best pleased to see them together, I should think, were you?"
+
+"No," he admitted, a little sullenly.
+
+"You're angry with him, aren't you?"
+
+"Kind of," he confessed. "I wouldn't have complained at anything he'd asked
+me to do, but it was a low-down trick to get Katharine into this trouble."
+His eyes shone out with a dull anger. She watched him curiously.
+
+"Dick, you're not the boy you were," she sighed. "Guess you're sorry you
+ever came to that supper party at the Knickerbocker, aren't you?"
+
+He turned and looked at her. He was only twenty-two years old, but there
+were things in his face from which a man might have shrunk.
+
+"Yes, I am sorry," he confessed. "I am not blaming anybody but I shall be
+sorry all my life."
+
+"Jocelyn Thew treated you very much as he did me," she went on. "He carried
+you off your feet. You thought him the most wonderful thing that ever
+lived. It was the same with me. He has never given as much of himself as
+his little finger, never even looked at me as though I were a human being,
+but I'd have scrubbed floors for him a month after we first met. It was
+just the same with you, only you were a man. You'd have committed murder
+for his sake, a week after that party."
+
+"Murder!"
+
+He gave a sudden start, a start that amazed her. His hand was upon her
+shoulder. His eyes, red with fury, were blazing into hers.
+
+"What's that you're saying, Nora? What's that?"
+
+She was speechless, paralysed by that little staccato cry. A group of
+people near looked around. She laughed shrilly to cover the intensity of
+the moment.
+
+"No need to get excited!" she exclaimed. "Pull yourself together," she went
+on, under her breath. "Waiter, two more cocktails." He recovered himself
+almost at once, but the strained look was there about his mouth.
+
+"Nerves, you see," he muttered. "I shall be all right again when I get back
+to France."
+
+She laid her hand gently upon his arm.
+
+"Dick," she said, "you are often upon my conscience. You were such a nice
+boy, back in those days. Everything that's happened to you seems to have
+happened since you met Jocelyn Thew that night. He has got some sort of a
+hold, hasn't he? What is it?"
+
+The young man moistened his dry lips. The waiter brought their cocktails
+and he drank his greedily.
+
+"I'll tell you, Nora," he promised. "Perhaps it'll do me good to listen how
+the story sounds as I tell it. First of all, let us have the thing
+straight. Jocelyn Thew never helped me into trouble. I was in it, right up
+to the neck, when I met him."
+
+"You kept it to yourself," she murmured curiously.
+
+"Because I was a fool," he answered, "and because I believed I could pull
+things straight. But anyway, I was owing Dan Murchison seventy thousand I'd
+lost at poker. He was kind of shepherding me. He was a rough sort, Dan, and
+he had an ambitious wife, and I had a name he liked. Well, he was giving a
+week-end party down at that place of his on the Hudson. He asked me, or
+rather he ordered me down. I was only too glad to go. Then Mrs. Murchison
+chipped in--wanted my sister, wanted to put it in the paper. Katharine
+kicked, of course. So did I. Murchison for the first time showed his
+teeth--and we both went. Jocelyn Thew was another of the guests."
+
+"Tough, wasn't it?"
+
+"Hell! On the way down--I don't know why, but I was feeling pretty
+desperate--I told Jocelyn Thew how I stood with Murchison. He listened but
+he didn't say much. He never does. It was a rotten party--common people,
+one or two professional gamblers, a lot of florid, noisy, overdressed,
+giggling women. After the women were supposed to have gone to bed, we sat
+down to what Dan Murchison called a friendly game--a hundred dollars ante,
+and a thousand rise. Jocelyn Thew played, three other men, and Murchison.
+After about an hour of it, I'd lost over twenty thousand dollars. The
+others had it between them, except Jocelyn, and about his play there was a
+very curious thing. He put in his ante regularly when it came to him, but
+he never made a single bet. Murchison turned to him once.
+
+"'Say, you must be having rotten cards, Mr. Thew,' he said.
+
+"Jocelyn shook his head very deliberately. I can hear his reply even now.
+Kind of quiet it was and deliberate.
+
+"'I don't fancy my chances of winning at this game.'
+
+"I knew what he meant later. I didn't tumble to it at the time. We played
+till two o'clock. God knows how much I'd lost! Then Murchison called the
+game off. He locked up his winnings in a little safe let into the wall. I
+was standing by him, drinking, and I saw the combination. Jocelyn Thew was
+sitting quite by himself, as though deep in thought.--We all got up to bed
+somehow. I sat for some hours at the open window. Pretty soon I got sober,
+and I began to realise what had happened. And all the time I thought of
+that safe, chock full of money, and the combination ready set. I heard
+Katharine moving about in her room, and I knew that she was waiting for me
+to go and say good night. I wouldn't. I put on a short jacket instead of my
+dress coat, and I took an electric torch out of my dressing case and I went
+down-stairs. I'd made up my mind, Nora. I meant to rob that safe."
+
+She was carried away by his narrative. He had let himself go now, speaking
+in short, quick sentences. Yet his plain words seemed to paint with a
+marvellous vividness the story he told. It seemed to her that she could see
+it all, could realise what he went through.
+
+"Go on, Dick," she whispered. "I understand."
+
+"Well, I got down into the room all right, and I got the safe open, and
+there was the money, and, right facing me, my letters and bonds, and pretty
+well a hundred thousand dollars in cash. And then I saw the lights flare
+up, and Murchison was there in his shirt and trousers.
+
+"'So that's your game, is it, Richard Beverley?' he said.
+
+"There were two of the others with him who'd been playing cards. There they
+were, three strong men, and I was a thief! I felt limp. I hadn't an ounce
+of resistance in me. Murchison stood there, showing his ugly teeth, his
+small eyes full of anger.
+
+"'So you're a thief, are you, Richard Beverley?' he went on.
+
+"I couldn't speak. At that moment they could have done just what they liked
+with me. And then the door opened very quietly and closed again. Jocelyn
+Thew came in. I saw Murchison's face. I tell you, Nora, it was something
+you wouldn't forget in a hurry.
+
+"'Is anything wrong?' Jocelyn Thew asked calmly.
+
+"One of the guests pointed to Murchison and me.
+
+"'We heard footsteps,' he explained. 'Dan called me and I followed him
+down. Young Beverley there was at the safe.'
+
+"'Probably helping himself,' Jocelyn said, in that same smooth, dangerous
+tone, 'to his own money.'
+
+"'To what?' Murchison cried.
+
+"'To his own money,' Jocelyn repeated, coming a little nearer. 'You know,
+Murchison, well enough what I mean--you and your two confederates here.
+You're nothing more nor less than common card sharpers. I took a pack of
+your cards up-stairs. I needn't say anything more. I think you'd better
+give the boy back his money. I meant to wait until to-morrow. Fate seems to
+have anticipated me. How much did you lose, Richard?'
+
+"Dan Murchison strode up to him and I saw one of the other men go for his
+hip pocket.
+
+"'Will you take that back?' Murchison demanded.
+
+"'Not on your life!' Thew replied.
+
+"Murchison went for him, but he hadn't a dog's chance. I never saw such a
+blow in my life. Jocelyn hit him on the point of the chin and he went over
+like a log--cut his head against the fender. He lay there groaning, and
+I--I swear to you, Nora, that I'm not a coward, but I couldn't move--my
+knees were shaking. The two of them went for Jocelyn, and before they could
+get there the door opened and a third man came in--Jake Hannaway, the most
+dangerous of the lot. Jocelyn kept the other two off and half turned his
+head towards me, where I was standing like a gibbering, nerveless lunatic.
+
+"'I think you'd better take a hand, Richard,' he said."
+
+Nora gasped a little and laid her hand upon his sleeve.
+
+"Don't, Dick," she begged,--"not for a moment. I can't bear it. Just a
+moment."
+
+She clutched at the side of the settee. Richard Beverley simply sat still,
+looking through the walls of the room. There was not the slightest change
+in his face. He just waited until Nora whispered to him. Then he went on.
+
+"I won't tell you about the fight," he said. "I wasn't much use at first.
+Jocelyn was there, taking two of them on, and butting in sometimes against
+Hannaway, who'd tackled me. Then I began to get my strength back, and I
+think I should have settled Hannaway, but the door opened softly and I saw
+Katharine's face. She gave a little shriek, and Jake Hannaway got me just
+at the back of the head. I was pretty well done in, but Thew suddenly swung
+round and caught Jake Hannaway very nearly where he had hit Murchison. Down
+he went like a log. I stood there swaying. I can see the room now--a table
+overthrown, glasses and flower vases all over the floor, and those two men
+looking as though they meant to murder Thew. They rushed at him together.
+He dodged one, but his strength was going. Then for the first time he
+sprang clear of them, got his back to the wall.--I won't spin it out--he
+shot one of them through the shoulder. The other one had had enough and
+tried to bolt. Jocelyn Thew was just too quick for him. He flung a heavy
+candlestick and got him somewhere on the neck. There they all were
+now--Murchison sitting up and dabbing his face, half conscious, one of the
+others groaning and streaming with blood, the other lying--just as though
+he were dead. Jocelyn turned and spoke to Katharine--I can hear his voice
+now--I swear, Nora, there wasn't a quaver in it--
+
+"'I am afraid, Miss Beverley,' he said, 'that your brother has unwittingly
+brought you into a den of thieves. I had my suspicions, and my car, instead
+of being at the garage, is under the shrubs there. One moment.'
+
+"He stepped out into the hall, brought a coat and threw it around her. Then
+he turned to me.
+
+"'Empty the safe, Richard,' he ordered.
+
+"I obeyed him. There was all the money I owed Murchison there, and a lot of
+other stuff. We stepped out of the French windows. Jocelyn moved the leg of
+one of those men on one side and held the window open for Katharine to pass
+through. I tell you he set the switch and started his car without a tremor.
+Katharine was nearly fainting. I was still fogged. He drove us into New
+York with scarcely a word. It was daylight when we reached our house in
+Riverside Drive. He drove up to the front door.
+
+"'Perhaps if you don't mind, Richard,' he said, 'you could lend me an
+overcoat. People are quite content to accept us as night joy-riders, but I
+am scarcely respectable for anything in the shape of a close examination.'
+
+"Then I saw that he was all over blood on one side. Katharine took him away
+and sponged him, although he laughed at it. Then he had me in the study and
+together we went through the stuff we'd brought away. He made me keep what
+Murchison had done me out of, and the rest he made into a packet, addressed
+ready for posting and left it on the table.
+
+"'For anything else that may happen, Dick,' he said, 'we must take our
+chance. I have had my suspicions of that man Murchison for a long time. My
+own opinion is that we shall hear nothing more about the matter.'"
+
+Nora turned and looked at her companion with big, startled eyes.
+
+"But it was Jake Hannaway," she exclaimed, "whom they accused of making a
+row!"
+
+He stopped her, without impatience but firmly.
+
+"Jake Hannaway died the next day," he said. "I must have hit him harder
+than I thought--or Jocelyn did! He had no relatives, no friends. Murchison
+put the whole trouble down to him, admitted that there was a row over a
+game of cards, and a free fight. The other two swore to exactly the same
+story. Our names--mine and Jocelyn's, were never brought in. Murchison
+never came near me again. I have never seen him since. That's the whole
+story."
+
+"What about the police examination?" she asked curiously. "I know no more
+than you do," he replied. "I expect Murchison had a pull, and he was
+terrified of Jocelyn Thew. I--I went to Jake Hannaway's funeral," the young
+man went on, with a slight quiver in his tone. "I've seen his face, Nora,
+up in the clouds. I've seen it when I've been flying ten thousand feet up.
+Suddenly a little piece of black sky would open and I'd see him looking
+down at me!"
+
+There was a brief silence. From somewhere through the repeatedly opened
+swing doors came the rise and fall of music, played from a distant
+orchestra. There were peals of laughter from a cheerful party at the other
+end of the little room. Nora patted her companion's arm gently, and his
+eyes and manner became more natural.
+
+"It's done me good to tell you this," he said, half apologetically.
+"Katharine's the only other living creature I've dared to speak to about
+it, and she was there--she saw! Nora, that man can fight like a tiger!"
+
+"Hush!" she whispered. "Here he comes."
+
+The swing door was opened and Jocelyn Thew, back from his visit to the box
+office at the Alhambra, entered the room. He raised his eye brows a little
+as he saw the pair. Then he advanced towards them.
+
+"Do you know, for the moment I had quite forgotten," he confided, as he
+sank into an easy-chair by their side. "Of course, you two are old
+acquaintances."
+
+Nora murmured something. Richard Beverley rose to his feet.
+
+"Well, I'd better be getting along," he said. "It's been fine to see you
+again, Nora," he added, taking her hand in his. "See you later, Thew."
+
+He nodded with something of his old jauntiness and swung out of the room.
+They both watched him in silence.
+
+"Not quite the young man he was," Jocelyn Thew observed thoughtfully. "Is
+it my fancy, I wonder, or does he drink a few too many cocktails when he is
+on leave?"
+
+"Richard Beverley's all right," Nora answered. "He is more sensitive than
+he seems, and there's an ugly little corner in his life to live down. He is
+doing the best he can to atone. Jocelyn," she went on, with a sudden
+earnestness in her tone, "you're going to leave him alone, aren't you? You
+haven't any scheme in your head for making use of him?"
+
+"One never knows," was the cool reply.
+
+She looked at him curiously.
+
+"Jocelyn," she said, "you're a hard man. You set your hand to a task and
+you don't care whom in the world you sacrifice to gain your end. You were a
+fine friend to Richard Beverley once, but surely his sister has done her
+best to pay his debt? Don't do anything that will make him ashamed of the
+uniform he wears."
+
+"Very pretty," he murmured approvingly, "but I must take you back to your
+own words--they were true enough. When I have a task to perform, when I
+pledge myself to a certain thing, I do it, and I must make use of those
+whom fate puts in my way. Richard Beverley and his sister are a very
+attractive couple, but if circumstances decree that they are the pawns by
+means of which I can win the game, then I must make use of them.--Dear me,"
+he added, "my friend Crawshay! I fear that I shall be _de trop_."
+
+Nora turned to greet the newcomer, and Thew sauntered away with a little
+bow of farewell, quite courteous, even gracious. With the handle of the
+door in his hand, however, he paused and came back.
+
+"My friend Crawshay," he said, "one word with you."
+
+Crawshay turned around.
+
+"With pleasure!"
+
+"Those henchmen of yours--they are so stupid, so flagrantly obvious. I am a
+good-tempered person, but they irritated me this afternoon at Euston."
+
+"What can I do?" Crawshay asked. "However, you must not let them get on
+your nerves. They follow you about only as a matter of form. We must keep
+up the old legends, you know. When," he added, dropping his eyeglass and
+polishing it slowly, "when we really come to the end of this most
+fascinating little episode, I do not fancy that you will have cause to
+complain of our methods."
+
+Jocelyn Thew smiled.
+
+"Your cryptic words have struck the right note," he confessed. "The thrill
+of fear is in my veins. One more word, though. Miss Nora Sharey is an old
+friend of mine. There is a tie between us at which you could not guess.
+Lavish your attentions on her in the hope of hearing something which will
+prove to your advantage, but do not trifle with her affections. If you do,
+I shall constitute myself her guardian and there will be trouble,
+Crawshay--trouble."
+
+Once more he turned away, with a smile at Nora and a little nod to
+Crawshay. He passed through the door and disappeared, erect, lithe and
+graceful. Nora looked after him, and her eyes were filled with admiration.
+
+"I think," she sighed, "although I am getting fonder of you every moment,
+Mr. Crawshay," she added, as she saw from underneath the tissue paper the
+huge bunch of white roses he was carrying, "that my money will go on
+Jocelyn Thew."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+About three-thirty on the following afternoon, in the grounds devoted to
+the much advertised Red Cross Sale, that eminent comedian, Mr. Joseph
+Bobby, mounted to the temporary rostrum which had been erected for him at
+the rear of one of the largest tents, amidst a little storm of half
+facetious applause. He repaid the general expectation by gazing steadfastly
+at a few friends amongst the audience in his usual inimitable fashion, and
+by indulging in a few minutes of gagging chaff before he proceeded to
+business. A little way off, a military band was playing popular selections.
+The broad avenues between the marquees were crowded with streams of pretty
+women in fancy dresses, and mankind with a little money in his pocket was
+having a particularly uneasy time. There was nothing to distinguish this
+from any other of the Red Cross fetes of the season, except, perhaps, its
+added magnificence.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen," the comedian began, "I am here to sell by auction
+the boxes at the Alhambra Theatre for to-night, when, as you know, there
+will be the greatest performance ever given by the largest number of star
+artistes--myself included. Owing to a slight difference of opinion with the
+management, who, as you are probably aware, ladies and gentlemen, are the
+thickest-headed set of blighters in existence--" Loud cries of "No!" from
+the managing director in the front row.
+
+"--I have only the four large boxes to dispose of. I shall start with Box
+B. Who will make me an offer for Box B? Who will offer me, say, twenty-five
+guineas to start the bidding?"
+
+Half-a-dozen offers were immediately made, and Box B was disposed of for
+thirty-five guineas. Boxes C and D fetched a little more.
+
+"We now come," the auctioneer concluded impressively, "to the _piece de
+resistance_, if I may so call it. Box A is--well, you all know Box A,
+ladies and gentlemen, so I will simply say that it is the best box in the
+house. It will hold all the friends any man breathing has any use for. It
+would hold the largest family who ever received the Queen's bounty. Box A
+is one of those elastic boxes, ladies and gentlemen, which have no limit.
+You can fill it chock full, and if the right person knocks at the door
+there will still be room for another. Who will start the bidding at forty
+guineas?"
+
+"I will give you fifty," Jocelyn Thew said, promptly raising his hand.
+
+The auctioneer leaned forward, expecting to see a familiar face. He saw
+instead a very distinguished-looking and remarkably well-turned-out
+stranger, smiling pleasantly at him from the front row of the audience.
+
+"You are a man, sir," the former declared warmly. "You are giving me a good
+push off. Fifty guineas is bidden, ladies and gentlemen, for Box A."
+
+"I'll go to fifty-five," a well-known racing man called out from the rear.
+"Not a penny more, Joe, so don't get faking the bidding."
+
+The comedian assumed an air of grieved surprise.
+
+"That from you I did not expect, Mr. Mason," he said. "However, that you
+may have no cause for complaint, I am prepared to knock Box A down to you
+for fifty-five guineas, barring any advance."
+
+"Sixty," Jocelyn Thew bid.
+
+The auctioneer noted the advance with thanks. Then he looked towards the
+betting man, who shook his head. The auctioneer, who was rather wanting to
+get away, raised his hammer with an air of finality.
+
+"Going at sixty guineas, then."
+
+"Sixty-five," a new bidder intervened.
+
+The comedian, with his hammer already poised in the air, paused in some
+surprise. A clean-shaven man in dark grey clothes and a bowler hat, a man
+who had somehow the air of being a little out of his element in this galaxy
+of pleasure seekers, caught his eye.
+
+"Sixty-five you said, sir. Very good. Going at sixty-five."
+
+"Seventy," Jocelyn Thew bid.
+
+"Seventy-five."
+
+"Eighty."
+
+"Eighty-five."
+
+"Ninety."
+
+"Ninety-five."
+
+"One hundred guineas," Jocelyn Thew bid, turning with a good-natured smile
+to glance at his opponent.
+
+The auctioneer drew himself up. The contest had begun to interest him.
+Every one in the room was standing on tiptoe to watch.
+
+"One hundred guineas is bid by my friend in the front," he declared. "A
+very princely offer. Shall I knock it down at that?"
+
+One hundred and twenty was promptly bidden by the newcomer. Jocelyn Thew
+smiled up at the auctioneer.
+
+"Well," he said, "I've invited my party so I suppose I'll have to stick to
+it. I'll make it a hundred and fifty."
+
+"A hundred and sixty."
+
+"A hundred and seventy-five."
+
+"Two hundred."
+
+"Two hundred and fifty."
+
+The comedian's flow of badinage had ceased. An intense silence reigned in
+the marquee. He, in common with many of the others, was beginning to
+recognise a note of something unusual in this duel.
+
+"Two hundred and fifty guineas is a very handsome sum for the box," he
+said, leaning forward. "Perhaps some arrangement could be made, Mr. ----"
+
+"My name is Jocelyn Thew. The two hundred and fifty guineas bid is mine. I
+have the notes here ready."
+
+The auctioneer turned towards the other bidder appealingly.
+
+"I am acting under instructions," the latter said, "and I am not at liberty
+to make any arrangements to share the box."
+
+"In that case, the bid against you at the present moment is two hundred and
+fifty guineas," the auctioneer told him. "Of course, the more money we get,
+the better--the Red Cross can do with it--but it seems to me that the
+present bid is adequate. If no arrangement is possible, however, I must
+continue the auction."
+
+"Two hundred and seventy-five guineas."
+
+"Three hundred," Jocelyn Thew replied coolly. "One moment, Mr. Bobby."
+
+He leaned forward and whispered in the comedian's ear. The latter nodded
+and turned to the rival bidder.
+
+"Do you understand, sir," he enquired, "that this is strictly a cash
+affair? I must have notes for the amount at the conclusion of the sale."
+
+"You will have to wait until I get them, then," was the anxious reply. "I
+only brought two hundred and fifty with me."
+
+The comedian shook his head.
+
+"There can be no question of waiting," he decided. "If two hundred and
+fifty guineas is all that you have with you, then the box must go to the
+other gentleman for three hundred guineas."
+
+"If we'd only thought of mentioning the matter of cash before," Jocelyn
+Thew said pleasantly, "it seems to me that I might have saved a little
+money. However, I don't grudge it to the cause."
+
+There was a little murmur of applause, and before any further word could be
+said, the auctioneer's hammer dropped. Jocelyn Thew stepped up to his side
+and counted out three hundred guineas in notes, receiving in return the
+admission ticket for the box. The comedian shook hands with him.
+
+"A very generous contribution, sir," he declared. "I shall do myself the
+pleasure of remembering it to-night."
+
+Jocelyn Thew made some suitable reply and strolled leisurely off, his eyes
+searching everywhere for his unsuccessful rival. He found him at last in
+the main avenue, on his way to the principal exit, and touched him on the
+shoulder.
+
+"One moment, sir," he begged.
+
+The young man paused. When he saw who his interlocutor was, however, he
+attempted to hurry on.
+
+"You will excuse me," he began, "I am pressed for time."
+
+"I will walk with you as far as the gate," Jocelyn Thew said. "I am very
+curious concerning your bidding for Box A. Can't you let me know for whom
+you were trying to buy it? It is possible that I might feel inclined to
+resell."
+
+"My instructions were to buy the box by auction, and to go up to five
+hundred pounds for it," was the somewhat hesitating reply. "I am
+unfortunately not in a position to divulge the name of my client."
+
+"You can at least tell me your own name, or the name of the firm whom you
+represent?"
+
+The young man quickened his pace.
+
+"I can tell you nothing," he said firmly. "Good afternoon!"
+
+Jocelyn Thew strolled thoughtfully back, made a few purchases wherever he
+was accosted, but had always the air of a man who is seeking to solve some
+problem. Issuing from one of the tents, he came suddenly face to face with
+Katharine and her brother.
+
+"You are too late for the auction," the latter declared, as they shook
+hands, "and you wouldn't have got your box, anyhow. Do you know what it
+fetched?"
+
+"Three hundred guineas," Jocelyn Thew replied with a smile. "I bought it at
+that."
+
+They both stared at him.
+
+"For three hundred guineas?" Richard repeated.
+
+"I was rather lucky to get it at that. There was an anonymous bidder who
+fortunately hadn't got the cash with him, or I gathered that he was willing
+to go to a great deal more."
+
+They stood for a moment in silence. Katharine laughed a little nervously.
+
+"What does it mean?" she asked.
+
+"A little obstinacy on the part of a millionaire, I suppose," Jocelyn Thew
+replied carelessly. "By-the-by, if it suits you we will meet at the theatre
+this evening, instead of dining. I know that you will like to have a little
+time alone with your brother, as he is off to-night, Miss Beverley, and I
+have a business friend coming in to see me about dinner time. I shall be in
+the box, awaiting you, say at half-past eight. You'll be close to Charing
+Cross, won't you, Richard, and you won't have to leave until ten o'clock?"
+
+"That's all right," the young man agreed. "It's a jolly good send-off for
+me."
+
+Jocelyn Thew made his farewells and strolled down one of the narrow avenues
+which led to the exit. About half-way down, he came suddenly face to face
+with Nora and Crawshay. They all three stood together, talking, for a few
+moments. Suddenly Crawshay, who appeared to see some one in the crowd,
+turned away. "Will you excuse me for one moment, Miss Sharey?" he said.
+"Perhaps Mr. Thew will take care of you."
+
+"Perhaps," Jocelyn Thew observed, as he watched Crawshay disappear, "you
+need some taking care of, eh, Nora?"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders. Her eyes sought his. She looked at him
+defiantly.
+
+"Well," she exclaimed, "London's a dull place all alone. So's life."
+
+"I am not interfering in your choice of residence or companionship," he
+replied, "although it seems strange that you, whom I think I may call my
+friend, should choose to amuse yourself with the one person in life who is
+my open enemy, the one man who has sworn to bring about my downfall."
+
+"There isn't any man in the world will ever do that," she declared, "and
+you know it. You are afraid of no one. You've no cause to be."
+
+"That may be true," he agreed, "but since we have the opportunity of these
+few moments' conversation, Nora, there is one thing I wish to say to you. I
+place no embargo upon your friendship with Mr. Crawshay. I do not presume
+to dictate to you even as to the subjects of your conversation with him.
+Tell him what pleases you. Talk to him about me, if you will--you will find
+him always interested. But there is one thing. If your lips should ever
+breathe a word of that other name of mine, or of those other things
+connected with my personal history of which you know, I warn you, Nora,
+that it will be a very bad day for you. It will be the one unforgivable
+thing, and I never forgive." Nora shivered, although the afternoon sun was
+streaming down upon them. Her cheeks were a little paler.
+
+"No," she murmured, "I know that. You would never forgive. You are as hard
+as the rocks. All the time since I have known you, I have tried to soften
+you ever so little, just because I was fool enough to like you, fool enough
+to believe that it was just suffering which had made you what you are. That
+belongs to the past. When I think of you now, my heart is like a stone,
+because I know that there is no love in you, nor any of those other things
+for which a woman craves. I should be very sorry indeed, Jocelyn Thew, for
+any woman who ever cared for you, and for her own sake I pray very much
+that there is no one at the present moment who does."
+
+A light breeze was blowing over the place. They were standing a little
+apart, in the shadow of a tree, and the hum of conversation and laughter,
+the noisy appeals of the vendors of flowers and other trifles, the strident
+voices from a distant stage, the far-off strains of swaying music, seemed
+blended together in an insistent and not inharmonious chorus. Jocelyn Thew
+stood as though listening to them for a moment. His eyes were following a
+tall figure in white, walking, a little listlessly by her brother's side.
+When he spoke, his tone was unusually soft.
+
+"I always told you what you seem to have discovered, Nora," he said. "I
+always told you that behind the driving force of my life was much hate but
+no love, nor any capacity for love. That may not have been my fault. If we
+were in another place," he went on, "I somehow feel that I might tell you
+what I have never told anybody else--the real story that lay behind the
+things you know of, things the memory of which was brought back to me only
+last night. Even now that may come, but for the present, Nora, remember.
+What you know of me that lies behind that curtain, must never pass your
+lips."
+
+"I promise," she murmured. "Here comes Mr. Crawshay."
+
+Jocelyn Thew raised his hat, smiled at Nora and strolled away. He smiled
+also a little to himself, but not so pleasantly. The man from whom Crawshay
+had just parted, and with whom he had been in close conversation, was the
+man who had been bidding against him for Box A at the Alhambra that night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+From six o'clock until half an hour before the time fixed for the
+commencement of the performance, a steady crowd of people elbowed and
+pushed their way that night into the cheaper parts of the Alhambra
+Music-hall. Soon afterwards, the earliest arrivals presented themselves at
+the front of the house. Brightman and Crawshay arrived together, and made
+their way at once to the manager's office, the former noticing, with a
+little glint of recognition which amounted to scarcely more than a droop of
+the eyes, two or three sturdy looking men who had the appearance of being a
+little unused to their evening clothes, and who were loitering about in the
+vestibule.
+
+The manager greeted his two visitors without enthusiasm. He was a small,
+worried-looking man, with pale face, hooked nose and shiny black hair. He
+had recently changed his name from Jonas to Joyce, without materially
+affecting the impression which he made upon the stranger.
+
+"This is Mr. Crawshay," Brightman began, "who has charge from the
+Government point of view, of the little matter you and I know about."
+
+The manager shook hands limply.
+
+"Glad to meet you, Mr. Crawshay," he said, "but a little disturbed at the
+cause. I must say that I hope you will find your impressions ill-founded. I
+don't like things of this sort happening in my house."
+
+"Might happen anywhere," Mr. Brightman declared, with an attempt at
+cheerfulness. "By-the-by, Mr. Joyce, I hope you got my note?"
+
+The manager nodded.
+
+"Yes," he assented, "I've made all the arrangements you wished, and the box
+has not been entered except by the cleaner."
+
+"Mr. Thew himself, then, has made no attempt to visit it?" Crawshay
+enquired.
+
+"Not to my knowledge," was the brusque reply.
+
+The two men took their leave, strolled along the vestibule, glanced at the
+closed door of the box and made their way down into the stalls.
+
+"Our friend must be exceedingly confident," Brightman remarked musingly.
+
+"Or else we are on the wrong tack," Crawshay put in.
+
+"As to that we shall see! I don't like to seem over-sanguine," Brightman
+went on, "but my impression is that he is rather up against it."
+
+"All I can say is that he is taking it very coolly, then!"
+
+"To all appearance, yes. But whereas it is quite true that he has made no
+attempt to get at the box, Joyce didn't tell us--as a matter of fact, I
+don't suppose he knows--that three times Jocelyn Thew has visited the
+theatre under some pretext or other, and spotted my men about. From
+half-an-hour after his bid at the fete, that box has been as inaccessible
+to him as though it had been walled up."
+
+They took their seats in the stalls, which were now rapidly filling. About
+five minutes later, Jocelyn Thew arrived alone. The box opener brought him
+from the vestibule, and an amateur programme seller accepted his
+sovereign--both, in view of the many rumours floating about the place,
+regarding him with much curiosity. Without any appearance of hurry he
+entered the much-discussed box, divested himself of his coat and hat, and
+stood for a moment in full view, looking around the house. His eyes rested
+for a moment upon the figures of the two men below, and a very grim smile
+parted his lips. He stepped a little into the background and remained for
+some time out of sight. Brightman's interest became intense.
+
+"From this moment he is our man," he whispered. "All the same, I should
+have liked to have seen where he has hidden the papers. I went round the
+box myself without finding a thing."
+
+Jocelyn Thew had hung up his coat and hat upon one of the pegs, and for a
+few seconds remained as though listening. Then he turned the key of the
+door, and, taking the heavy curtain up in his hand, searched it for a few
+moments until he arrived at a certain spot in one of the bottom folds. With
+a penknife which he drew from his pocket, he cut through some improvised
+stitches, thrust his hand into the opening and drew out a small packet,
+which he buttoned up in his pocket. In less than a minute he had let the
+curtain fall again and unlocked the door. Almost immediately afterwards
+there was a knock.
+
+"Come in," he invited.
+
+Katharine and her brother entered, the former in a gown of black net
+designed by the greatest of French modistes, and Richard in active service
+uniform.
+
+"We are abominably early, of course," Katharine declared, as they shook
+hands, "but I love to see the people arrive, and as it is Dick's last
+evening he couldn't bear the thought of losing a minute of it."
+
+Jocelyn Thew busied himself in establishing his guests comfortably. He
+himself remained standing behind Katharine's chair, a little in the
+background.
+
+"We are going to have a great performance to-night," he observed. "Exactly
+what time does your train go, Richard?"
+
+"Ten o'clock from Charing Cross."
+
+Jocelyn Thew thrust his hand into his pocket, and Richard, rising to his
+feet, stepped back into the shadows of the box. Something passed between
+them. Katharine turned her head and clutched nervously at the programme
+which lay before her. She was looking towards them, and her face was as
+pale as death. Her host stepped forward at once and smiled pleasantly down
+at her.
+
+"You will not forget," he whispered, "that we are likely be the centre of
+observation to-night. I see that our friends Brightman and Crawshay are
+already amongst the audience."
+
+Katharine picked up her program and affected to examine it. "If only
+to-night were over!" she murmured.
+
+"It is strange that you should feel like that," he observed, drawing his
+chair up to the front of the box and leaning towards her in conversational
+fashion. "Now to me half the evils of life lie in anticipation. When the
+time of danger actually arrives, those evils seem to take to themselves
+wings and fly away. Take the case of a great actress on her first night, an
+emotional and temperamental woman, besieged by fears until the curtain
+rises, and then carried away by her genius even unto the heights. Our
+curtain has risen, Miss Beverley. All we can do is to pray that the gods
+may look our way."
+
+She studied him thoughtfully for a moment. It was obvious that he was not
+exaggerating. His granite-like face had never seemed more immovable. His
+tone was perfectly steady, his manner the manner of one looking forward to
+a pleasant evening. Yet he knew quite well what she, too, guessed--that his
+enemies were closing in around him, that the box itself was surrounded,
+that notwithstanding all his ingenuity and all his resource, a crisis had
+come which seemed insuperable. She was suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of
+the pity of it. All the admiration she had ever felt for his strange
+insouciance, his almost bravado-like coolness, his mastery over events,
+seemed suddenly to resolve itself into more definite and more
+clearly-comprehended emotion. It was the great pity of it all which
+suddenly appealed to her. She leaned a little forward.
+
+"You have called this our last evening," she whispered. "Tell me one thing,
+won't you? Tell me why it must be?"
+
+The softness in her eyes was unmistakable, and his own face for a moment
+relaxed wonderfully. Again there was that gleam almost of tenderness in his
+deep-blue eyes. Nevertheless, he shook his head.
+
+"Whether I succeed or whether I fail," he said simply, "to-night ends our
+associations. Don't you understand," he went on, "that if I pass from the
+shadow of this danger, there is another more imminent, more certain?"
+
+He hesitated for a single moment, and his voice, which had grown softer,
+became suddenly almost musical. Katharine, who was listening intently,
+realised like a flash that for the first moment the mask had fallen away.
+
+"I have lived for many years with that other danger," he went on. "It has
+lain like a shadow always in front of my path. Perhaps that is why I have
+become what I am, why I have never dared to hope for the other things which
+are dear to every one."
+
+Her hand suddenly gripped his. They sat there for a moment in a strange,
+disturbing silence. Then the orchestra ceased, the curtain was rung up, the
+performance, which was in the nature of a music-hall show, with frequent
+turns and changes, commenced. Popular favourites from every department of
+the theatrical world, each in turn claimed attention and applause.
+Katharine watched it all with an interest always strained, a gaiety
+somewhat hysterical; Jocelyn Thew with the measured pleasure of a critic;
+Richard with uproarious, if sometimes a little unreal merriment. The time
+slipped by apparently unnoticed. Suddenly Richard glanced at his
+wrist-watch and stood up.
+
+"I must go," he declared. "I had no idea that it was so late." Katharine's
+fingers clutched the program which lay crumpled up in her hand. She looked
+at her brother with almost frightened eyes. Their host, too, had risen to
+his feet, and down-stairs in the stalls two men had slipped out of their
+places. Jocelyn Thew threw back his head with a little familiar gesture.
+The light of battle was in his eyes.
+
+"Richard is right," he observed. "It is twenty minutes to ten."
+
+"My servant will meet me down there with my kit and get me a seat," the
+young man said. "I shall have plenty of time, but I think I had better make
+a start."
+
+Katharine came into the back of the box and threw her arms around her
+brother's neck. He stooped and kissed her on the lips and forehead.
+
+"Cheer up, Katharine," he begged. "There is nothing to worry about."
+
+"Nothing whatever," Jocelyn Thew echoed. "The most serious contingency that
+I can see at present is that you may have to find your way home alone."
+
+"The number of the car is twenty," Beverley said, handing a ticket to his
+sister. "I'll send you a wire from Folkestone."
+
+Jocelyn Thew suddenly held out his hand. His eyes were still flashing with
+the light of anticipated battle, but there was something else in his face
+reminiscent of that momentary softening.
+
+"Mine, I fear," he murmured, "may be but a wireless message, but I hope
+that you will get it."
+
+They departed, and Katharine, drawing her chair into the back of the box,
+faced many anxious moments of solitude. The two men made their way in
+leisurely fashion along the vestibule and turned upstairs towards the
+refreshment room. Half-way up, however, Jocelyn Thew laid his hand upon his
+companion's arm.
+
+"Dick," he said, "I think if I were you I wouldn't have another. You've
+only just time to catch your train, as it is."
+
+"Must have a farewell glass, old fellow," the young man protested.
+
+His companion was firm, however, and Beverley turned reluctantly away. They
+walked arm in arm down the broad entrance lounge towards the glass doors.
+It seemed to have become suddenly evident that Jocelyn Thew's words were
+not without point. Richard stumbled once and walked with marked
+unsteadiness. Just before they reached the doors, Brightman, with a tall,
+stalwart-looking friend, slipped past them on the right. Another man fell
+almost into line upon the left, and jostled the young officer as he did so.
+The latter glanced at both of them a little truculently.
+
+"Say, don't push me!" he exclaimed threateningly. "You keep clear."
+
+Neither of the men took any notice. The nearer one, in fact, closed in and
+almost prevented Beverley's further progress. Brightman leaned across.
+
+"I am sorry, Captain Beverley," he said, "but we wish to ask you a
+question. Will you step into the box office with us?"
+
+"I'm damned if I will!" the young man answered. "I have a matter of ten
+minutes to catch my train at Charing Cross, and I'm not going to break my
+leave for you blighters."
+
+Crawshay, who had been lingering in the background, drew a little nearer.
+
+"Forgive my intervention, Captain Beverley," he said, "but the matter will
+be explained to the military authorities if by chance you should miss your
+train. I am afraid that we must insist upon your acceding to our request."
+
+Then followed a few seconds' most wonderful pandemonium. Jocelyn Thew's
+efforts seemed of the slightest, yet Mr. Brightman lay on his back upon the
+floor, and his stalwart companion, although he himself was not ignorant of
+Oriental arts, lay on his side for a moment, helpless. Richard, if not so
+subtle, was equally successful. His great fist shot out, and the man whose
+hand would have gripped his arm went staggering back, caught his foot in
+the edge of the carpet, and fell over upon the tesselated pavement. There
+were two swing doors, and Richard, with a spring, went for the right-hand
+one. The commissionaire guarding the other rushed to help his companion bar
+the exit. The two plainclothes policemen, whose recovery was instantaneous,
+scrambled to their feet and dashed after him, followed by Crawshay. Jocelyn
+Thew, scarcely accelerating his walk, strolled through the left-hand door,
+crossed the pavement of the Strand and vanished.
+
+Fortune was both kind and unkind to Richard in those next few breathless
+minutes. An old football player, his bent head and iron shoulder were
+sufficient for the commissionaires, and, plunging directly Across the
+pavement and the street, he leapt into a taxi which was crawling along in
+the direction of Charing Cross.
+
+"Give you a sovereign to get to Charing Cross in three minutes," he cried
+out, and the man, accepting the spirit of the thing, thrust in his clutch,
+eagerly. For a moment it seemed as though temporarily, at any rate, Richard
+would get clear away. In about fifty yards, however, there was a slight
+block. The door of the taxicab was wrenched open, and one of the men who
+were chasing him essayed to enter. Richard sent him without difficulty
+crashing back into the street, only to find that simultaneously the other
+door had been opened, and that his hands were held from behind in a grip of
+iron. At the same time he looked into the muzzle of Crawshay's revolver.
+
+"Sit down," the latter commanded.
+
+Brightman, too, was in the taxicab, and one of the other men had his foot
+upon the step. With a shrug of the shoulders, the young man accepted the
+inevitable and obeyed. Brightman leaned out of the window, gave a direction
+to the driver, and the taxicab was driven slowly in through the assembling
+crowd. Richard leaned back in his corner and glared at his two companions.
+
+"Say, this is nice behaviour to an officer!" he exclaimed truculently. "I
+am on my way to catch the leave train. How dare you interfere with me!"
+
+"Perhaps," Crawshay remarked, "we may consider that the time has arrived
+for explanations."
+
+"Then you'd better out with them quick," Richard continued angrily. "I am
+an officer in His Britannic Majesty's Service, come over to fight for you
+because you can't do your own job. Do you get that, Crawshay?"
+
+"I am listening."
+
+"I am on my way to catch the ten o'clock train from Charing Cross," Richard
+went on. "If I don't catch it, my leave will be broken."
+
+"I feel sure," Crawshay remarked drily, "that the authorities will
+recognise the fact that you made every effort to do so. As a matter of
+fact, there will be a supplementary train leaving at ten-forty-five, which
+it is possible that you may be able to catch. Explanations such as I have
+to offer are not to be given in a taxicab. I have therefore directed the
+man to drive to my rooms, I trust that you will come quietly. If the result
+of our conversation is satisfactory, as I remarked before, you can still
+catch your train."
+
+Richard glanced at the man seated opposite to him--a great strong fellow
+who was obviously now prepared for any surprise; at Brightman, who, lithe
+and tense, seemed watching his every movement; at the little revolver which
+Crawshay, although he kept it out of sight, was still holding.
+
+"Seems to me I'm up against it," he muttered. "You'll have to pay for it
+afterwards, you fellows, I can tell you that."
+
+They accepted his decision in silence, and a few minutes later they
+descended outside the little block of flats in which Crawshay's rooms were
+situated. Richard made no further attempt to escape, stepped into the lift
+of his own accord, and threw himself into an easy-chair as soon as the
+little party entered Crawshay's sitting room. There was a gloomy frown upon
+his forehead, but the sight of a whisky decanter and a soda-water syphon
+upon the sideboard, appeared to cheer him up.
+
+"I think," he suggested tentatively, "that after the excitement of the last
+half-hour--"
+
+"You will allow me to offer you a whisky and soda," Crawshay begged, mixing
+it and bringing it himself. "When you have drunk it, I have to tell you
+that it is our intention to search you."
+
+"What the devil for?" the young man demanded, with the tumbler still in his
+hand.
+
+"We suspect you of having in your possession certain documents of a
+treasonous nature."
+
+"Documents?" Richard jeered. "Don't talk nonsense! And treasonous to whom?
+I am an American citizen."
+
+"That," Crawshay reminded him, "is entirely contrary to your declaration
+when a commission in His Majesty's Flying Corps was granted to you. The
+immediate question, however, is are you going to submit to search or not?"
+
+Richard glanced at that ominous glitter in Crawshay's right hand, glanced
+at Brightman, and at the giant who was standing barely a yard away, and
+shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"I suppose you must do what you want to," he acquiesced sullenly, "but
+you'll have to answer for it--I can tell you that. It's a damnable
+liberty!"
+
+He drank up his whisky and soda and set down the empty glass. The search
+which proceeded took a very few moments. Soon upon the table was gathered
+the usual collection of such articles as a man in Richard's position might
+be expected to possess, and last of all, from the inside of his vest, next
+to his skin, was drawn a long blue envelope, fastened at either end with a
+peculiar green seal. Crawshay's heart beat fast as he watched it placed
+upon the table. Richard seemed to have lost much of his truculence of
+manner.
+
+"That packet," he declared, "is my personal property. It contains nothing
+of any moment whatever, nothing which would be of the least interest to
+you."
+
+"In that case," Brightman promised, "it will be returned to you. Mr.
+Crawshay," he added, turning towards him, "I must ask you, as you represent
+the Government in this matter, to break these seals and acquaint yourself
+with the nature of the contents of this envelope, which I have reason to
+suppose was handed to Captain Beverley by Jocelyn Thew, a few minutes ago."
+
+Crawshay took the envelope into his hands.
+
+"I am sorry, Captain Beverley," he declared, "but I must do as Mr.
+Brightman has suggested. This man Jocelyn Thew, with whom you have been in
+constant association, is under very grave suspicion of having brought to
+England documents of a treasonable nature."
+
+"I suppose," Richard said defiantly, "you must do as you d----d well
+please. My time will come afterwards."
+
+Crawshay broke the seal, thrust his hand into the envelope and drew out a
+pile of closely folded papers. One by one he laid them upon the table and
+smoothed them out. Even before he had glanced at the first one, a queer
+presentiment seemed suddenly to chill the blood in his veins. His eyes
+became a trifle distended. They were all there now, a score or more of
+sheets of thin foreign note paper, covered with hand-writing of a
+distinctly feminine type. The two men read--Richard Beverley watched them
+scowling!
+
+"What the mischief little May Boswell's letters have to do with you
+fellows, I can't imagine!" he muttered. "Go on reading, you bounders! Much
+good may they do you!"
+
+There were minutes of breathless silence. Then Crawshay, as the last sheet
+slipped through his fingers, glanced stealthily into Brightman's face, saw
+him bite through his lips till the blood came and strike the table with his
+clenched fist.
+
+"My God!" he exclaimed, snatching up the telephone receiver. "Jocelyn Thew
+has done us again!"
+
+"And you let him walk out!" Crawshay groaned.
+
+"We'll find him," Brightman shouted. "Here, Central! Give me Scotland Yard.
+Scotland Yard, quick! Johnson, you take a taxi to the Savoy."
+
+Unnoticed, Richard Beverley had risen to his feet and helped himself to
+another whisky and soda.
+
+"If you are now convinced," he said, turning towards them, "that I am
+carrying nothing more treasonable than the love letters of my best girl, I
+should be glad to know what you have to say to me on the subject of my
+detention?"
+
+Crawshay for once forgot his manners.
+
+"Damn your detention!" he replied. "Get off and catch your train."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+On the extreme edge of a stony and wide-spreading moor, Jocelyn Thew
+suddenly brought the ancient motor-car which he was driving to a somewhat
+abrupt and perilous standstill. He stood up in his seat, unrecognisable,
+transformed. From his face had passed the repression of many years. His
+lips were gentle and quivering as a woman's, his eyes seemed to have grown
+larger and softer as they swept with a greedy, passionate gaze the view at
+his feet. All that was hard and cruel seemed to have passed suddenly from
+his face. He was like a poet or a prophet, gazing down upon the land of his
+desires.
+
+Behind him lay the rolling moor, cloven by that one ribbonlike stretch of
+uneven road, broken here and there with great masses of lichen-covered grey
+rock, by huge clumps of purple heather, long, glittering streaks of yellow
+gorse. The morning was young, and little shrouds of white mist were still
+hanging around. His own clothes were damp. Little beads of moisture were
+upon his face. But below, where the Atlantic billows came thundering in
+upon a rock-strewn coast, the sun, slowly gathering strength, seemed to be
+rolling aside the feathery grey clouds. Downwards, split with great
+ravines, the road now sloped abruptly to a little plateau of farmland, on
+the seaward edge of which stood the ruins of a grey castle. Dotted here and
+there about that pastoral strip and on the opposite hillside, were a few
+white-washed cottages. Beyond these no human habitation, no other sign of
+life.
+
+The traveller gazed downwards till he suddenly found a new mist before his
+eyes. Nothing was changed. Everywhere he looked upon familiar objects.
+There was the little harbour where he had moored his boat, scarcely more
+than a pool surrounded by those huge masses of jagged rocks; the fields
+where he had played, the cave in the cliffs where he had sat and dreamed.
+This was his own little corner, the land which his forefathers had sworn to
+deliver, the land for which his father had died, for which he had become an
+exile, to which he returned with the price of death upon his head.
+
+After a while he slipped down from the car, examined the brakes, mounted to
+his seat and commenced the precipitous descent. Skilful driver though he
+was, more than once he was compelled to turn into the cliff side of the
+road in order to check his gathering speed. At last, however, he reached
+the lowlands in safety. On the left-hand side now was the rock-strewn
+beach, and the almost deafening roar of the Atlantic. On the right and in
+front, fields, no longer like patchwork but showing some signs of
+cultivation; here and there, indeed, the stooping forms of labourers--men,
+drab-coloured, unnoticeable; women in bright green and scarlet shawls and
+short petticoats. He passed a little row of whitewashed cottages, from
+whose doorways and windows the children and old people stared at him with
+strange eyes. One old man who met his gaze crossed himself hastily and
+disappeared. Jocelyn Thew looked after him with a bitter smile upon his
+lips. He knew so well the cause of the terror.
+
+He came at last to the great gates leading to the ruined castle, gates
+whose pillars were surmounted by huge griffins. He looked at the deserted
+lodges, the coat of arms, nothing of which remained but a few drooping
+fragments. He shook the iron gates, which still held together, in vain.
+Finally he drove the car through an opening in the straggling fence, and up
+the long, grass-grown avenue, until he reached the building itself. Here he
+descended, walked along the weed-framed flags to the arched front door, by
+the side of which hung the rusty and broken fragments of a bell, at which
+he pulled for some moments in vain. To all appearances the place was
+entirely deserted. No one answered his shout, or the wheezy summons of the
+cracked and feeble bell. He passed along the front, barely out of reach of
+the spray which a strong west wind was bringing from seaward, looked in
+through deserted windows till he came at last to a great crack in the
+walls, through which he stepped into a ruined apartment. It was thus that
+he entered the home in which he had been born.
+
+He made his way into a stone passage, along which he passed until a door on
+his right yielded to his touch. In front of him now were what had been the
+state apartments, stretching along the whole front of the castle save the
+little corner where he had entered. Here was dilapidation supreme,
+complete. The white, stone-flagged floor knew no covering save here and
+there a strip of torn matting. The walls were stained with damp. At long
+intervals were tables and chairs of jet-black oak, in all sorts and states
+of decay. On one or two remained the fragments of some crimson velvet,--on
+the back of one, remnants of a coat of arms! And here, entirely in keeping
+with the scene of desolation, were the first signs of human life--an old
+man with a grey beard, leaning upon a stick, who walked slowly back and
+forth, mumbling to himself.
+
+A new light broke across Jocelyn Thew's face as he listened, and the tears
+stood in his eyes. The man was reciting Gaelic verses, verses familiar to
+him from childhood. The whole desolate picture seemed to envisage thoughts
+which he had never been able to drive from his mind, seemed in the person
+of this old man to breathe such incomparable, unalterable fidelity that he
+felt himself suddenly a traitor who had slipped unworthily away and hidden
+from a righteous doom. Better that his blood had been spilt and his bones
+buried in the soil of the land than to have become a fugitive, to have
+placed an ocean between himself and the voices to which this old man had
+listened, day by day and night by night, through the years!
+
+Jocelyn Thew stole softly out of the shadows.
+
+"Timothy," he called quietly.
+
+The old man paused in his walk. Then he came forward towards the speaker
+and dropped on one knee. His face showed no surprise, though his eyes were
+strange and almost terribly brilliant.
+
+"The Cathley!" he exclaimed. "God is good!"
+
+He kissed his master's hand, which he had seized with almost frantic joy.
+Jocelyn Thew raised him to his feet.
+
+"You recognised me then, Timothy?"
+
+"There is no Cathley in the world," the old man answered passionately,
+"would ever rise up before me and call himself by any other name."
+
+"Am I safe here, Timothy, for a day or two?"
+
+The old man's scorn was a wonderful thing.
+
+"Safe!" he repeated. "Safe! There is just a dozen miles or so of the
+Kingdom of Ireland where the stranger who came on evil business would
+disappear, and it's our pride that we are the centre of it."
+
+"They've held on, then, in these parts?"
+
+"Hold on? Why, the fire that smouldered has become a blaze," was the eager
+response. "Ireland is our country here. Why--you know?"
+
+"Know what?" Jocelyn Thew demanded. "You must treat me as a stranger,
+Timothy, I have been living under a false name. News has failed me for
+years."
+
+"Don't you know," the old man went on eagerly, "that they meet here in the
+castle, the men who count--Hagen, the poet, Matlaske, the lawyer, Indewick,
+Michael Dilwyn, Harrison, and the great O'Clory himself?"
+
+"I thought O'Clory was in prison since the Sinn Fein rising."
+
+"In prison, aye, but they daren't keep him there!" was the fierce reply.
+"They had a taste then of the things that are ablaze through the country.
+The O'Clory and the others will be here to-night, under your own roof. Aye,
+and the guard will be out, and there'll be no Englishman dare come within a
+dozen miles!"
+
+Jocelyn Thew walked away to one of the great windows and looked out
+seaward. The old servant limped over to his side.
+
+"Your honour," he said, his voice shaking even as the hands which clasped
+his stick, "this is a wonderful day--sure, a wonderful day!"
+
+"For me, too, Timothy!"
+
+"You've been a weary time gone. Maybe you've lain hidden across the seas
+there--you've heard nothing."
+
+"I've heard little enough, Timothy," his master told him sadly. "There came
+a time when I put the newspapers away from me. I did it that I might keep
+sane."
+
+"You've missed much then, Sir Denis. There has been cruelty and wickedness,
+treason and murder afoot, but the spirit of the dear land has never even
+flickered in these parts. The arms we sent to Dublin were landed in yonder
+bay, and there was none to stop them, either, though they laid hands on
+that poor madman who well-nigh brought us all to ruin. There's strange
+craft rides there now, where your honour's looking."
+
+A silence fell between the two men. Presently the steward withdrew.
+
+"I'll be seeing after your honour's room," he murmured "and there's others
+to tell. There's a drop of something left, too, in the cellars, thank God!"
+
+Jocelyn Thew listened to the retreating footsteps and then for a moment
+pushed open the window. There was the old roar once more, which seemed to
+have dwelt in his ears; the salt sting, the scream of the pebbles, the cry
+of a wheeling gull. There was the headland round which he had sailed his
+yacht, the moorland over which he had wandered with his gun, the meadow
+round which he had tried the wild young horses. In those few seconds of
+ecstatic joy, he seemed for the first time to realise all that he had
+suffered during his long exile.
+
+More and more unreal seemed to grow the world in which Sir Denis Jocelyn
+Cathley passed that day. Time after time, the great hall in which he had
+played when a boy, draughty now but still moderately weather-tight, had
+echoed to the roars of welcome from old associates. But the climax of it
+all came later on, when he sat at the head of the long, black oak table,
+presiding over what was surely the strangest feast ever prepared and given
+to the strangest gathering of guests. The tablecloth of fine linen was
+patched and mended--here and there still in holes. Some of the dishes were
+of silver and others of kitchen china. There were knives and forks
+beautifully shaped and fashioned, mingled with the horn-handled ware of the
+kitchen; silver plate and common pewter side by side; priceless glass and
+common tumblers; fragments of beautiful china and here and there white
+delf, borrowed from a neighbouring farm. The fare was simple but plentiful;
+the only drink whisky and some ancient Marsala, in dust-covered bottles,
+produced by Timothy with great pride and served with his own hand. The roar
+which had greeted the first drinking of Sir Denis' health had scarcely died
+away when Michael Dilwyn led the way to the final sensation.
+
+"Denis, my boy," he said, "there's a trifle of mystery about you yet. Will
+you tell me then, why, when I spoke to you at the Savoy Restaurant the
+other night, you denied your own identity? Told me your name was Thew, or
+something like it, and I your father's oldest friend, and your own, too!"
+
+A sudden flood of recollection unlocked some of the fears in Denis
+Cathley's breast.
+
+"I have not used the name of Cathley for many years," he said. "Was it
+likely that I should own to it there, in the heart of London, with a price
+upon my head, and half a dozen people within earshot? I came back to
+England at the risk of my life, on a special errand. I scarcely dared to
+hope that I might meet any of you. I just wanted twelve hours here--"
+
+"Stop, lad!" Dilwyn interrupted. "What's that about a price on your head?
+You've missed none of our letters, by any chance?"
+
+"Letters?" Sir Denis repeated. "I have had no word from this country, not
+even from Timothy here, for over three years and a half."
+
+There was a little murmur of wonder. The truth was beginning to dawn upon
+them.
+
+"It'll be the censor, maybe," Michael Dilwyn murmured. "Tell us, Denis
+Cathley, what brought you back, then? What was this special errand you
+spoke of?"
+
+"Nothing I can discuss, even with you," was the grim answer. "It was a big
+risk, in more ways than one, but if to-night keeps calm I'll bring it off."
+
+"You've had no letters for three years," Michael Dilwyn repeated. "Why,
+d----n it, boy," he exclaimed, striking the table with his fist, "maybe you
+don't know, then? You haven't heard of it?"
+
+"Heard of what?" Sir Denis demanded.
+
+"Your pardon!"
+
+"My--what?"
+
+"Your pardon," was the hoarse reply, "signed and sealed a year ago, before
+the Dublin matter. Things aren't as bad as they were! There's a different
+spirit abroad.--Pass him the Madeira, Hagan. Sure, this has unnerved him!"
+
+Sir Denis drank mechanically, drank until he felt the fire of the old wine
+in his veins. He set the glass down empty.
+
+"My pardon!" he muttered.
+
+"It's true," Hagan assured him. "You were one of a dozen. I wrote you with
+my own hand to the last address we had from you, somewhere out on the west
+coast of America. Dilwyn's right enough. England has a Government at last.
+There are men there who want to find the truth. They know what we are and
+what we stand for. You can judge what I mean when I tell you that we speak
+as we please here, openly, and no one ventures to disturb us. Denis,
+they've begun to see the truth. Dilwyn here will tell you the same thing.
+He was in Downing Street only last week."
+
+"I was indeed--I, Michael Dilwyn, the outlaw!--and they listened to me."
+
+"The days are coming," Hagan continued, "for which we've pawned our lands,
+our relatives, and some of us our liberty. Please God there isn't one here
+that won't see a free Ireland! We've hammered it into their dull Saxon
+brains. It's been a long, drear night, but the dawn's breaking."
+
+"And I am pardoned!" Sir Denis repeated wonderingly.
+
+"Where have you been to these three years, man, that you've heard nothing?"
+Michael Dilwyn asked.
+
+"In Mexico, Cuba, Nicaragua, Uraguay. You're right. I've been out of the
+world. I crept out of it deliberately. When I left here, nothing seemed so
+hopeless as the thought that a time of justice might come. I cut myself off
+even from news. I have lived without a name and without a future."
+
+"Maybe for the best," Hagan declared cheerfully. "Remember that it's but
+twelve months ago since your pardon was signed, and you'd have done ill to
+have found your way back before then.--But what about this mission you
+spoke of?"
+
+Sir Denis looked down the table. Of servants there was only old Timothy at
+the sideboard, and of those who were gathered around his board there was
+not one whom he could doubt.
+
+"I will tell you about that," he promised, leaning a little forward. "You
+have read of the documents and the famous stolen letter which were supposed
+to have been brought over to England in a certain trunk, protected by the
+seal of a neutral country?"
+
+"Why, sure!" Michael Dilwyn murmured under his breath. "The box was to have
+been opened at Downing Street, but one heard nothing more of it."
+
+"The stolen letter," Hagan remarked, "was supposed to have been indiscreet
+enough to have brought about the ruin of a great man in America."
+
+Sir Denis nodded.
+
+"You've got the story all right," he said. "Well, those papers never were
+in that trunk. I brought them over myself in the _City of Boston_. I
+brought them over under the nose of a Secret Service man, and although the
+steamer and all of us on board were searched from head to foot in the
+Mersey before we were permitted to land."
+
+"And where are they now?" Michael Dilwyn asked.
+
+Sir Denis drew a long envelope from his pocket and laid it upon the table
+before him. Almost as he did so, another little sensation brought them all
+to their feet. They hurried to the window. From about a mile out seaward, a
+blue ball, followed by another, had shot up into the sky. Sir Denis watched
+for a moment steadily. Then he pointed to a bonfire which had been lighted
+on the beach.
+
+"That," he pointed out, "is my signal, and there is the answer. The
+documents you have all read about are in that envelope."
+
+There was a queer, protracted silence, a silence of doubt and difficulty.
+
+"It will be a German submarine, that," Michael Dilwyn declared. "She has
+come to pick up your papers, maybe?"
+
+"That's true," was the quiet answer. "I was to light the fire on the beach
+the moment I arrived. The blue balls were to be my answer."
+
+The O'Clory, a big, silent man, leaned over and laid his hand on his host's
+shoulder.
+
+"What are you going to do about it?" he demanded.
+
+"For the moment I do not know," Sir Denis confessed. "Advise me, all of
+you. I undertook this enterprise partly because of its danger, partly for a
+great sum of money which I should have handed over to our cause, partly
+because if I succeeded it would hurt England. Now I have come back and I
+find you all moved by a different spirit."
+
+"There isn't a man in this island," Michael Dilwyn said slowly, "who has
+hated England as I have. She has been our oppressor for generations, and in
+return we have given her the best of our sons, their life-blood, their
+genius, their souls. And yet, with it all there is a bond. Our children
+have married theirs, and when we've looked together over the side, we've
+seen the same things. We've made use of Germans, Denis, but I tell you
+frankly I hate them. There are two things every Irishman loves--justice and
+courage--and England went into this war in the great manner. She has done
+big things, and I tell you, in a sneaking sort of way we're proud. I am
+honest with you, you see, Denis. You can guess, from what I've said, what
+I'd do with that packet."
+
+Sir Denis turned to the O'Clory.
+
+"And you?" he asked.
+
+"My boy," was the reply, "sure Michael's right. I've hated England, I've
+shouldered a rifle against her, I've talked treason up and down the
+country, and I've known the inside of a prison. I've spat at her authority.
+I've said in plain words what I think of her--fat, commerce-ridden, smug,
+selfish. I've watched her bleed and been glad of it, but at the bottom of
+my heart I'd have liked to have seen her outstretched hand. Denis, lad,
+that's coming. We've got to remember that we, too, are a proud, obstinate,
+pig-headed race. We've got to meet that hand half-way, and when the moment
+comes I'd like to be the first to raise the boys round here and give the
+Germans hell!"
+
+Another blue ball shot up into the sky. Sir Denis took the packet of papers
+from the table and stood by the great open stone hearth. Michael Dilwyn
+moved to his side, a gaunt, impressive figure.
+
+"You're doing the right thing, Denis," he declared. "What fighting we've
+done, and any that we may still have to do with England, we'll do it on the
+surface. I was down at Queenstown when they brought in some of the bodies
+from the _Lusitania_. To Hell with such tricks! There's no Irishman yet has
+ever joined hands with those who war against women and babies."
+
+Denis drew a log of burning wood out on to the hearth and laid the packet
+deliberately upon it. He stood there watching the smoke curl upwards as the
+envelope shrivelled and the flames crept from one end to the other.
+
+"That seems a queer thing to do," he observed, with a dry little laugh.
+"I've carried my life in my hands for those papers, and there's a hundred
+thousand pounds waiting for them, not a mile away."
+
+"Blood-money, boy," the O'Clory reminded him, "and anyway there's a touch
+of the evil thing about strangers' gold.--Eh, but who's this?"
+
+A large motor-car had suddenly flashed by the window. With the instinct of
+past dangers, the little gathering of men drew close together. There was
+the sound of an impatient voice in the hall. The door was opened hurriedly
+and Crawshay stepped in. "It is a gentleman in a great hurry, your honour,"
+Timothy explained.
+
+Crawshay, dour and threatening, came a little further into the room. Behind
+him in the hall was a vision of his escort. Sir Denis looked up from the
+hearth with a poker in his hand.
+
+"My friend," he observed, "it seems to be your unfortunate destiny to be
+always five minutes too late in life."
+
+Crawshay's outstretched hand pointed denouncingly through the window
+towards the bay.
+
+"If I am too late this time," he declared, "then an act of treason has been
+committed. You know what it means, I suppose, to communicate with the
+enemy?"
+
+Denis shook his head.
+
+"As yet," he said, "we have held no communication with our visitors. If you
+doubt my word, come down on your knees with me and examine these ashes."
+
+Crawshay, with a little exclamation, crossed the floor and crouched down by
+the other's side. A word or two in the topmost document stared at him. The
+seal of the envelope had melted, and a little thread of green wax had made
+a strange pattern upon the stones.
+
+"Is this the end, then?" he demanded in bewilderment.
+
+"It is the end," was the solemn reply. "Perhaps if you take the ashes away
+with you, you will be able to consider that honours are divided."
+
+"You burnt them--yourself?" Crawshay muttered, still wondering. "Every
+gentleman in this room," Denis replied, "is witness of the fact that I
+destroyed unopened the packet which I brought from America, barely five
+minutes ago."
+
+Crawshay stood upright once more. He was convinced but puzzled.
+
+"Will you tell me what induced you to do this?" he asked.
+
+"We will tell you presently. As for the submarine outside, well, as you
+see, he is still sending up blue lights."
+
+Crawshay gathered the ashes together and thrust them into an envelope.
+
+"Your friend will be trying some of our Irish whisky, Denis," Michael
+Dilwyn invited. "We are hoping to make the brand more popular in England
+before long."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+One by one, the next morning, in all manner of vehicles, the guests left
+the Castle. Sir Denis bade them farewell, parting with some of them in the
+leaky hall of his ancestors, and with others out in the stone-flagged
+courtyard. Crawshay alone lingered, with the obvious air of having
+something further to say to his host. The two men strolled down together
+seaward to where the great rocks lay thick upon the stormy beach.
+
+"These," Sir Denis pointed out, "are supposed to be the marbles with which
+the great giant Cathley used to play. Tradition is a little vague upon the
+subject, but according to some of the legends he was actually an ancestor,
+and according to others a kind of patron saint.... Just look at my house,
+Crawshay! What would you do with a place like that?"
+
+They turned and faced its crumbling front, majestic in places, squalid in
+others, one whole wing open to the rain and winds, one great turret still
+as solid and strong as the rocks themselves.
+
+"It would depend very much," Crawshay replied, "upon the extremely sordid
+question of how much money I had to spend. If I had enough, I should
+certainly restore it. It's a wonderful situation."
+
+The eyes of its owner glowed as he swept the outline of the storm-battered
+country and passed on to the rich strip of walled-in fields above.
+
+"It is my home," he said simply. "I shall live in no other place. If this
+matter which we discussed last night should indeed prove to have a solid
+foundation, if this even should be the beginning of the end of the great
+struggle--"
+
+"But it is," Crawshay interrupted. "How can you doubt it if you have read
+the papers during the last six months?"
+
+"I have scarcely glanced at an English newspaper for ten years," was his
+companion's reply. "I fled to America, hating England as a man might do
+some poisonous reptile, sternly determined never to set foot upon her
+shores again. I left without hope. It seemed to me that she was implacable.
+The war has changed many things."
+
+"You are right," Crawshay admitted. "In many respects it has changed the
+English character. We look now a little further afield. We have lost some
+of our stubborn over-confidence. We have grown in many respects more
+spiritual. We have learnt what it means to make sacrifices, sacrifices not
+for gold but for a righteous cause. And as far as regards this country of
+yours, Sir Denis," he continued, "I was only remarking a few days ago that
+the greatest opponents of Home Rule who have ever mounted a political
+platform in England have completely changed their views. There is only one
+idea to-day, and that is to let Ireland settle her own affairs. Such
+trouble as remains lies in your own country. Convert Ulster and you are
+free."
+
+"You heard what was said last night?" Sir Denis reminded his companion.
+"The O'Clory believes that that is already done."
+
+The faintest of white mists was being burnt away now by the strengthening
+sun. Long, green waves came rolling in from the Atlantic. Distant rocks
+gleamed purple in the gathering sunshine. The green of the fields grew
+deeper, the colouring on the moors warmer. Crawshay lit a cigarette and
+leaned back against a rock.
+
+"Over in America," he observed, "I heard all sorts of stories about you.
+The man Hobson, with whom I was sent to Halifax, and who dragged me off to
+Chicago, seemed to think that if he could once get his hand on your
+shoulder there were other charges which you might have to answer.
+Brightman, that Liverpool man, had the same idea. I am mentioning this for
+your own sake, Sir Denis."
+
+The latter shook his head.
+
+"Heaven knows how I've kept clear," he declared, "but there isn't a thing
+against me. I sailed close to the wind in Mexico. I'd have fought for them
+against America if they'd really meant business, but they didn't. I was too
+late for the Boer War or I'd have been in that for a certainty. I went
+through South America, but the little fighting I did there doesn't amount
+to anything. After I came back to the States I ran some close shaves, I
+admit, but I kept clear of the law. Then I got in with some Germans at
+Washington. They knew who I was, and they knew very well how I felt about
+England. I did a few things for them--nothing risky. They were keeping me
+for something big. That came along, as you know. They offered me the job of
+bringing these things to England, and I took it on."
+
+"For an amateur," Crawshay confessed, "you certainly did wonderfully. I am
+not a professional detective myself, but you fairly beat us on the sea, and
+you practically beat us on land as well."
+
+"There's nothing succeeds like simplicity," Denis declared. "I gambled upon
+it that no one would think of searching the curtains of the music hall box
+in which Gant and I spent apparently a jovial evening. No one did--until it
+was too late. Then I felt perfectly certain that both you and Brightman
+would believe I was trying to get hold of Richard Beverley. The poor fellow
+thought so himself for some time."
+
+"There is just one question," Crawshay said, after a moment's pause, "which
+I'd like to ask. It's about Nora Sharey."
+
+Sir Denis glanced at his companion with a faint smile. He suddenly realised
+the purport of his lingering.
+
+"Well, what about her?"
+
+"She seems to have followed you very quickly from New York."
+
+"Must you put it like that? Her father and brother were connected with the
+German Secret Service in New York, and on the declaration of war they had
+to hide. She could scarcely stay there alone."
+
+"She might have gone with her father to Chicago," Crawshay observed.
+
+"You must remember that she, too, is Irish," Sir Denis pointed out. "I am
+not at all sure that she wasn't a little homesick. By-the-by, are you
+interested in her?"
+
+"Since you ask me," Crawshay replied, "I am."
+
+Sir Denis threw away his cigarette.
+
+"I suppose," he said quietly, "if I tell you that I am delighted to hear
+it, for your own sake as well as hers--"
+
+"That's all I have been hanging about to hear," Crawshay interrupted,
+turning towards the castle. "I suppose we shall meet again in London?"
+
+"I think not. They talk about sending me to the Dublin Convention here.
+Until they want me, I don't think I shall move."
+
+Crawshay looked around him. The prospect in its way was beautiful, but save
+for a few bending figures in the distant fields, there was no sign of any
+human being.
+
+"You won't be able to stand this for long," he remarked. "You've lived too
+turbulent a life to vegetate here."
+
+Sir Denis laughed softly but with a new ring of real happiness.
+
+"It's clear that you are not an Irishman!" he declared. "I've been away for
+over ten years. I can just breathe this air, wander about on the beach
+here, walk on that moorland, watch the sea, poke about amongst my old
+ruins, send for the priest and talk to him, get my tenants together and
+hear what they have to say--I can do these things, Crawshay, and breathe
+the atmosphere of it all down into my lungs and be content. It's just
+Ireland--that's all.--You hurry back to your own bloated, over-rich,
+smoke-disfigured, town-ruined country, and spend your money on restaurants
+and theatres if you want to. You're welcome."
+
+Sir Denis' words sounded convincing enough, but his companion only smiled
+as he brought his car out of a dilapidated coach-house, from amidst the
+ruins of a score of carriages.
+
+"All the same," he observed, as he leaned over and shook hands with his
+host, "I should never be surprised to come across you in that
+smoke-disfigured den of infamy! Look me up when you come, won't you?"
+
+"Certainly," Sir Denis promised. "And--my regards to Nora!"
+
+Richard Beverley, after his first embrace, held his sister's hands for a
+moment and looked into her face.
+
+"Why, Katharine," he exclaimed, "London's not agreeing with you! You look
+pale."
+
+She laughed carelessly.
+
+"It was the heat last month," she told him. "I shall be all right now. How
+well you're looking!"
+
+"I'm fine," he admitted. "It's a great life, Katharine. I'm kind of worried
+about you, though."
+
+"There is nothing whatever the matter with me," she assured him, "except
+that I want some work. In a few days' time now I shall have it. I have
+eighty nurses on the way from the hospital, with doctors and dressers and a
+complete St. Agnes's outfit. They sailed yesterday, and I shall go across
+to Havre to meet them."
+
+"Good for you!" Richard exclaimed. "Say, Katharine, what about lunch?"
+
+"You must be starving," she declared. "We'll go down and have it. I feel
+better already, Dick. I think I must have been lonely."
+
+They went arm in arm down-stairs and lunched cheerfully. Towards the end of
+the meal, he asked the question which had been on his lips more than once.
+
+"Heard anything of Jocelyn Thew?"
+
+"Not a word."
+
+Richard sighed thoughtfully.
+
+"What a waste!" he exclaimed. "A man like that ought to be doing great
+things. Katharine, you ought to have seen their faces when they searched me
+and found I was only carrying out a packet of old love letters, and it
+dawned upon them that he'd got away with the goods! I wonder if they ever
+caught him."
+
+"Shouldn't we have heard of it?" she asked.
+
+"Not necessarily. If he'd been caught under certain circumstances, he might
+have been shot on sight and we should never have heard a word. Not that
+that's likely, of course," he went on, suddenly realising her pallor. "What
+a clumsy ass I am, Katharine! We should have heard of it one way or
+another.--Do you see who's sitting over there in a corner?"
+
+Katharine looked across the room and shook her head.
+
+"The face of the man in khaki seems familiar," she admitted.
+
+"That's Crawshay, the fellow whom Jocelyn Thew fooled. He was married last
+week to the girl with him. Nora Sharey, her name was. She came from New
+York."
+
+"They seem very happy," Katharine observed, watching them as they left the
+room.
+
+"Crawshay's a good fellow enough," her brother remarked, "and the girl's
+all right, although at one time--"
+
+He stopped short, but his sister's eyes were fixed upon him enquiringly.
+
+"At one time," he continued, "I used to think that she was mad about
+Jocelyn Thew. Not that that made any difference so far as he was concerned.
+He never seemed to find time or place in his life for women."
+
+They finished their luncheon and made their way up-stairs once more to
+Katharine's sitting room. Richard stretched himself in any easy-chair and
+lit a cigar with an air of huge content.
+
+"I am to be transferred when our first division comes across," he told her.
+"Our Squadron Commander's going to make that all right with the W.O. We've
+had some grand flights lately, I can tell you, Katharine."
+
+There was a knock at the door, a few moments later. The waiter entered,
+bearing a card upon a tray, which he handed to Katharine. She read it with
+a perplexed frown.
+
+"Sir Denis Cathley.--But I don't know of any one of that name," she
+declared, glancing up. "Are you sure that he wants to see me?"
+
+"Perhaps I had better explain," a quiet voice interposed from outside. "May
+I come in?"
+
+Katharine gave a little cry and Richard sprang to his feet. Sir Denis
+pushed past the waiter. For a moment Katharine had swayed upon her feet. "I
+am so sorry," he said earnestly. "Please forgive me, Miss Beverley, and do
+sit down. It was an absurd thing to force my way upon you like this. Only,
+you see," he went on, as he helped her to a chair, "the circumstances which
+required my use of a partially assumed name have changed. I ought to have
+written you and explained. Naturally you thought I was dead, or at the
+other end of the world."
+
+Katharine smiled a little weakly. She was back again in her chair, but Sir
+Denis seemed to have forgotten to release her hand, which she made no
+effort to withdraw.
+
+"It was perfectly ridiculous of me," she murmured, "but I was just telling
+Dick--he is back again for another four days' leave and we were talking
+about you at luncheon time--that I wasn't feeling very well, and your
+coming in like that was quite a shock. I am absolutely all right now. Do
+please sit down and explain," she begged, motioning him to a chair.
+
+The waiter had disappeared. Sir Denis shook hands with Richard, who wheeled
+an easy-chair forward for him. He sat down between them and commenced his
+explanation.
+
+"You see," he went on, "as a criminal I am really rather a fraud. When I
+tell you that I am an Irishman--perhaps you may have guessed it from my
+name--and a rabid one, a Sinn Feiner, and that for ten years I have lived
+with a sentence probably of death hanging over me, you will perhaps
+understand my hatred of England and my somewhat morbid demeanour
+generally."
+
+Katharine was speechless. Richard Beverley indulged in a long whistle.
+
+"So that's the explanation!" he exclaimed. "That was why you got mixed up
+with that German crew, eh?"
+
+"That," Sir Denis admitted, "was the reason for my attempted enterprise."
+
+"Attempted?" Richard protested. "But you brought it off, didn't you?"
+
+"The end of the affair was really curious," Sir Denis explained. "I
+suppose, in a way, I did bring it off. I caught the mail train from Euston
+that night, got away with the papers and took them where I always meant
+to--to my old home on the west coast of Ireland. There, whilst I was
+waiting to keep an appointment with a German U-boat, I found out what
+happens to a man who has sworn an oath that he will never again look inside
+an English newspaper, and been obstinate enough to keep his word."
+
+"Say, this is interesting!" Richard declared enthusiastically. "Why, of
+course, there have been great changes, haven't there? You Irish are going
+to have all that you want, after all."
+
+"It looks like it," Sir Denis assented. "I found that my home was the
+rendezvous of a lot of my old associates, only instead of meeting
+underneath trapdoors at the risk of their lives, they were meeting quite
+openly and without fear of molestation. From them I heard that the
+Government had granted me, together with some others, a free pardon many
+months ago. I heard, too, of the coming Convention and of the altered
+spirit in English politics. I heard of these things just in time, for the
+U-boat was waiting outside in the bay."
+
+"You didn't part with the stuff?" Richard exclaimed eagerly.
+
+Sir Denis shook his head.
+
+"I burnt the papers upon my hearth," he told them. "Crawshay ran me to
+ground there, but his coming wasn't necessary. A great deal besides the
+ashes of those documents went up in smoke that night."
+
+Richard Beverley had risen to his feet and was pacing up and down the room.
+He found some vent for his feelings by wringing his friend's hand.
+
+"If this doesn't beat the band!" he exclaimed. "My head isn't strong enough
+to take it all in. So Crawshay found you out?"
+
+"He arrived," Sir Denis replied, "to find the papers burning upon the
+hearth. As a matter of fact, he took the ashes with him."
+
+"He didn't arrest you, then, after all? There was no charge made?"
+
+"None whatever. He was perfectly satisfied. He stayed until the next
+morning and we parted friends. A few days ago I had his wedding cards. You
+know whom he married?"
+
+"Saw them together down-stairs," Richard declared. "I'm off in a moment to
+see if I can get hold of Crawshay and shake his hand.--So you're Sir Denis
+Cathley, eh, and you've chucked that other game altogether?"
+
+"Naturally," the other replied--"Sir Denis Jocelyn Cathley. As a matter of
+fact, I am up in town to arrange for some one else to take my place at the
+Convention. I am not much use as a maker of laws. They've promised me a
+commission in the Irish Guards. That will be settled in a few days. Then I
+shall go back home to see what I can do amongst my tenantry, and
+afterwards--well," he concluded, with a little gleam in his dark eyes,
+"they promise me I shall go out with the first drafts of the new
+battalion."
+
+Richard gripped his friend's hand once again and turned towards the door.
+
+"It's great!" he declared. "I must try and catch Crawshay before he goes."
+
+He hurried out. The door was closed. Sir Denis turned at once towards
+Katharine. He rose to his feet and leaned over her chair. His voice was not
+quite so steady.
+
+"So much that I had thought lost for ever," he said, "has come back to me.
+So much that I had never thought to realise in this world seems to be
+coming true. Is it too late for me to ask for the one greatest thing of all
+of the only person who could count--who ever has counted? You know so well,
+Katharine, that even as a soured and disappointed man I loved you, and now
+it is just you, and you only, who could give me--what I want in life."
+
+She laid her fingers upon his shoulders. Her eyes shone as he drew her into
+his arms.
+
+"I ought to keep you waiting such a long time," she murmured, "because I
+had to ask you first--for your friendship, and you weren't very kind to
+die. But I can't."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Box with the Broken Seals, by
+E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
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