miliar look.
He was still looking about when a strange thing happened.

There came the sound of rapid footsteps approaching him, and the quick
breathing of an almost spent runner. Then came a sound as if somebody was
scuffling not far from him and suddenly a voice he knew well rang out:

"Prescott, you young scoundrel, I'll get you yet!"

The voice was that of Lieut. Bradbury.

"Well, how under the sun does Lieut. Bradbury know that I'm here?"
marvelled the amazed boy, stopping short.

At the same instant, from the direction in which the naval officer's shout
had come, a slender dark figure came racing toward him.

CHAPTER XIV.

HOW THEY WORKED OUT.

Roy made a desperate clutch at the figure as it raced past, evidently
fleeing from an unseen peril. That that peril was Lieut. Bradbury, Roy did
not for an instant doubt, as he could hear the officer's shouts in his
undoubted voice close at hand.

The boy's hands grasped the unknown's collar, but at the same instant,
with an eel-like squirm, the figure dived and twisted. Suddenly it bent
down and scooped up a handful of sandy gravel and flung the stuff full in
Roy's face. Blinded, the boy staggered back and the other darted off like
a deer.

The next instant two heavy hands fell on Roy's shoulders and he felt
himself twisted violently about. And then a voice--Lieut. Bradbury's
voice--said:

"Now then, you young rascal, I've got you. What does all this mean?"

"That's just what I'd like to know," exclaimed Roy indignantly, brushing
the gravel out of his smarting eyes, "I've been made prisoner and--."

The officer's astonished voice interrupted him.

"What! Do you mean to try to lie out of it? Didn't you just hand the plans
of the aeroplane over to that representative of a foreign government whom
Mr. Mortlake is now chasing?"

Roy looked at the other as if he thought he had gone suddenly mad, as well
he might.

"I don't understand you," he gasped. "What is all this--a joke? It's a
very poor one if it is."

"I'll give you a chance to explain," said the officer grimly, tightening
his hold on Roy's collar, "as things stand at present, I believe you to be
as black a young traitor as ever wore shoe leather."

The world swam before Roy's eyes. He sensed, for the first time, an
inkling of the diabolical web that had been spun about him.

But it is time that we retraced our footsteps a little and return to
events which occurred after the lieutenant had