it a little originality. I won't trouble you with
the machinery by which we learn things. It's enough to mention that
among the little things we did learn was the fact that the minister of
this parish had left for another charge, and that the parishioners were
choosing his successor after the Scottish custom--by hearing a number
of candidates each preach a trial sermon." He broke off and asked, "Do
you happen to have heard of Schumann?"

"You don't mean the great Schumann?"

"I mean a certain gentleman engaged in the same quiet line of business
as myself. He is known of course under another name in England, where
he is considered a very fine specimen of John Bull at his best--a
jovial, talkative, commercial gentleman with nice spectacles like Mr
Pickwick, who subscribes to all the war charities and is never tired of
telling his friends what he would do with the Kaiser if he caught him."

I laughed aloud at this happy description of a typical John Bull.

"Well," he continued, "I suggested to Schumann the wild idea--as it
seemed to us at first--of getting into the islands in the guise of a
candidate for the parish of Myredale. Two days later Schumann came to
me with his spectacles twinkling with excitement.

"'Look at this!' said he.

"He showed me a photograph in an illustrated paper. It was the
portrait of a certain Mr Alexander Burnett, minister of a parish in the
south of Scotland, and I assure you that if the name 'Adolph Tiel' had
been printed underneath, none of my friends would have questioned its
being my own portrait.

"'The stars are fighting for us!' said Schumann.

"'They seem ready to enlist,' I agreed.

"'How shall we encourage them?' said he.

"'I shall let you know to-morrow,' I said.

"I went home and thought over the problem. From the first I was
convinced that the only method which gave us a chance of success was
for this man Burnett to enter voluntarily as a candidate, make all the
arrangements himself--including the vital matter of a passport--and
finally start actually upon his journey. Otherwise, no attempt to
impersonate him seemed to me to stand any chance of success.

"Next day I saw Schumann and laid down these conditions, and we set
about making preliminary inquiries. They were distinctly promising.
Burnett's parish was a poor one, and from what we could gather, he had
already been thinking for some time past of making a change.

"We began by sending him anonymously a p