y.

"We had better hear what she has to say!" said the other man,
"but won't you introduce me first?"

"This is Sir Bristowe Marr, the First Sea Lord," said the Chief,
bringing up a chair for Barbara, "Miss Mackwayte, my secretary,
Admiral!"

Then in a low impassioned voice Barbara told her tale of the
package entrusted to her by Nur-el-Din and its disappearance from
her bedroom on the night of the murder. As she proceeded a deep
furrow appeared between the Chief's bushy eyebrows and he stared
absently at the blotting-pad in front of him. When the girl had
finished her story, the Chief said:

"Lambelet ought to hear this, sir: he's the head of the French
Intelligence, you know. He's outside now. Shall we have him in?
Miss Mackwayte shall tell her story, and you can then hear what
Lambelet has to say about this versatile young dancer."

Without waiting for further permission, he pressed a bell on the
desk and presently Matthews ushered in the small man with the
Legion of Honor whom Barbara had seen in the ante-room.

The Chief introduced the Frenchman and in a few words explained
the situation to him. Then he turned to Barbara:

"Colonel Lambelet speaks English perfectly," he said, "so fire
away and don't be nervous!"

When she had finished, the Chief said, addressing Lambelet:

"What do you make of it, Colonel?"

The little Frenchman made an expressive gesture.

"Madame has become aware of the interest you have been taking in
her movements, mon cher. She seized the opportunity of this
meeting with the daughter of her old friend to get rid of
something compromising, a code or something of the kind, qui
sait? Perhaps this robbery and its attendant murder was only an
elaborate device to pass on some particularly important report of
the movements of your ships... qui sait?"

"Then you are convinced in your own mind, Colonel, that this
woman is a spy?" The clear-cut voice of the First Sea Lord rang
out of the darkness of the room outside the circle of light on
the desk.

"Mais certainement!" replied the Frenchman quietly. "Listen and
you shall hear! By birth she is a Pole, from Warsaw, of good,
perhaps, even, of noble family. I cannot tell you, for her real
name we have not been able to ascertain... parbleu, it is
impossible, with the Boches at Warsaw, hein? We know, however,
that at a very early age, under the name of la petite Marcelle,
she was a member of a troupe of acrobats who called themselves
The