o the
table, and took up again one of the empty glass tubes.

"I wonder what he was to do with these."

Jose Medina had opened the door of the saloon once more. A beam of
sunlight shot through the doorway, and enveloped Hillyard's arm and
hand. The tiny slim phial glittered like silver; and to all of them in
the cabin it became a sinister engine of destruction.

"That, as you say, is your affair. I must go," said Jose, and he shook
hands with Hillyard and Fairbairn, and went out on to the deck. "_Hasta
luego!_"

"_Hasta ahora!_" returned Hillyard; and Jose Medina walked down the
steps of the ladder to his felucca. The blue sea widened between the two
vessels; and in a week, Hillyard descended from a train on to the
platform of the Quai D'Orsay station in Paris. He had the tubes in his
luggage, and one box of them he took that morning to Commandant Marnier
at his office on the left bank of the river with the letter which gave
warning of their arrival.

"You see what the letter says," Hillyard explained. "These tubes have
been very successful in France."

Marnier nodded his head:

"If you will leave them with me, I will show them to our chemists, and
perhaps, in a few days, I will have news for you."

For a week Hillyard took his ease in Paris and was glad of the rest in
the midst of those strenuous days. He received one morning at his hotel,
a batch of letters, many of which had been written months before. But
two were of recent date. Henry Luttrell wrote to him:

"_My battalion did splendidly and our debt to old Oakley is
great. There is only a handful of us left and we are
withdrawn, of course, from the lines. By some miracle I
escaped without a hurt. Everybody has been very generous,
making it up to us for our bad times. The Corps Commander
came and threw bouquets in person, and we hear that D.H.
himself is going out of his way to come and inspect us. I go
home on leave in a fortnight and hope to come back in
command of the battalion. Perhaps we may meet in London. Let
me hear if that is possible._"

The second letter had been sent from Rackham Park, and in it Millie
Splay wrote:

"_We have not heard from you for years. Will you be in
England this August? We are trying to gather again our old
Goodwood party. Both Dennis Brown and Harold Jupp will be
home on leave. There will be no Goodwood of course, but
there is a meeting at Ga