judgement. The trouble
about him was that he was too romantic. He had the artistic
temperament, and wanted a story to be better than God meant it to be.
He had a lot of odd biases, too. Jews, for example, made him see red.
Jews and the high finance.

'The Black Stone,' he repeated. 'DER SCHWARZE STEIN. It's like a
penny novelette. And all this stuff about Karolides. That is the weak
part of the tale, for I happen to know that the virtuous Karolides is
likely to outlast us both. There is no State in Europe that wants him
gone. Besides, he has just been playing up to Berlin and Vienna and
giving my Chief some uneasy moments. No! Scudder has gone off the
track there. Frankly, Hannay, I don't believe that part of his story.
There's some nasty business afoot, and he found out too much and lost
his life over it. But I am ready to take my oath that it is ordinary
spy work. A certain great European Power makes a hobby of her spy
system, and her methods are not too particular. Since she pays by
piecework her blackguards are not likely to stick at a murder or two.
They want our naval dispositions for their collection at the Marineamt;
but they will be pigeon-holed--nothing more.'

Just then the butler entered the room.

'There's a trunk-call from London, Sir Walter. It's Mr 'Eath, and he
wants to speak to you personally.'

My host went off to the telephone.

He returned in five minutes with a whitish face. 'I apologize to the
shade of Scudder,' he said. 'Karolides was shot dead this evening at a
few minutes after seven.'

CHAPTER EIGHT

The Coming of the Black Stone

I came down to breakfast next morning, after eight hours of blessed
dreamless sleep, to find Sir Walter decoding a telegram in the midst of
muffins and marmalade. His fresh rosiness of yesterday seemed a
thought tarnished.

'I had a busy hour on the telephone after you went to bed,' he said.
'I got my Chief to speak to the First Lord and the Secretary for War,
and they are bringing Royer over a day sooner. This wire clinches it.
He will be in London at five. Odd that the code word for a SOUS-CHEF
D/ETAT MAJOR-GENERAL should be "Porker".'

He directed me to the hot dishes and went on.

'Not that I think it will do much good. If your friends were clever
enough to find out the first arrangement they are clever enough to
discover the change. I would give my head to know where the leak is.
We believed there were only five men in E