o' information ye were badly wanting!"

"You're wrong, Major. The bit of information was this--from the spy to his
friends outside: '_No--news--to-night._'" The keen hazel eyes conveyed
something into the Northern blue ones that was not said in words: "'No
news to-night.' And the sender of that message was a railway man!"

The wiry hairs of the Chief Medical Officer's red moustache bristled like
a cat's.

"Toch! Colonel, you will have reason to be considering me dull in the
uptake, but I see through the mud wall now. And so the knowledge that ye
have no equal at hiding your deeds o' darkness even in the licht o' the
railway-yard was as good to ye as Daffy's Elixir. And when micht we reckon
on getting notification from what I may presume to ca' your double
surpreese-packet?"

He looked at his watch--a well-used Waterbury, worn upon the silvered
steel lip-strap of a cavalry bridle, and said:

"Ten o'clock. At a quarter past eleven I think we may count upon
something. The driver of Engine 123 has given me the word of an Irishman
from County Kildare; and the stoker, a Cardiff man, and the guard, who
hails from Shoreditch, are quite as keen as Kildare."

"You're sending the stuff up North?"

"In the direction of the stretch of railway-line they're busy wrecking, in
the hope that it may come in useful."

"Weel, I will gie ye the guid wish that the affair may go off exactly as
ye are hoping."

"Thanks, Major! You could hardly word the sentence more happily."

They exchanged a laugh as the Mayor bustled up, rubicund, important, and
with a Member of the Committee to introduce.

"Colonel, you'll permit me to present Alderman Brooker, one of our most
energetic and valued townsmen, President of the Gas Committee, and an
Assistant Borough Magistrate. One of Major Panizzi's Town Guardsmen. Was
on sentry-go last night not far from here, and had a most extraordinary
experience. Worth your hearing, if you can spare time to listen to my
friend's account of it."

"With pleasure, Mr. Mayor."

Brooker, a stout and flabby man, with pouches under biliously tinged eyes,
bowed and broke into a violent perspiration, not wholly due to the shiny
black frock-coat suit of broadcloth donned for the occasion.

"Sir, I humbly venture to submit that I have been the victim of a
conspiracy!"

"Indeed? Step this way, Mr. Brooker."

Brooker, soothed by the courteous affability of the reception, his sense
of importance magnified by being