last word of
writing I saw on German soil was a placard, offering a reward of five
thousand marks for my detention, with a disgustingly lifelike photograph
at the top. I had about fifty yards of quay to walk in broad daylight,
and every other man I passed turned to stare after me. It gives you the
cold shivers down your back when you daren't look round to see if you're
being followed."

Sir Henry groped in the cupboard of his desk, and produced a bottle of
whisky and a syphon of soda water. His visitor nodded approvingly.

"I've touched nothing until I've reached what I consider sanctuary," he
observed. "My nerves have gone rotten for the first time in my life. Do
you mind, sir, if I lock the door?"

"Go ahead," Sir Henry assented.

He brought the whisky and soda himself across the room. Horridge resumed
his seat and held out his hand almost eagerly. For a moment or two he
shook as though he had an ague. Then, just as suddenly as it had come
upon him, the fit passed. He drained the contents of the tumbler at a
gulp, set it down empty by his side, and stretched out his hand for a
cigar.

"The end of my journey didn't help matters any," he went on. "I daren't
even make for a Dutch port, and we were picked up eventually by a tramp
steamer from Newcastle to London with coals. I hadn't been on board more
than an hour before a submarine which had been following overhauled us.
I thought it was all up then, but the fog lifted, and we found ourselves
almost in the midst of a squadron of destroyers from Harwich. I made
another transfer, and they landed me in time to catch the early morning
train from Felixstowe."

"Did they get the submarine?" his listener asked eagerly.

"Get it!" the other repeated, with a smile. "They blew it into scrap
metal."

"Plenty of movement in your life!"

"I've run the gauntlet over there once too often," Horridge said grimly.
"Just look at me now, Sir Henry. I'm twenty-nine years old, and it's
only two years and a half since I was invalided out of the navy and
took this job on. The last person I asked to guess my age put me down at
fifty. What should you have said?"

"Somewhere near it," was the candid admission. "Never mind, Horridge,
you've done your bit. You shall pass on your experience to a new hand,
take your pension and try the south coast of England for a few months.
Now let's get on with it. You know what I want to hear about."

Horridge produced from his pocket a long strip of