..."

"Laleham Villas," prompted Mr. Marigold.

"I wasn't payin' much attention to were he was leadin' me," said
Barling, "what I wanted to find out was what he was up to!
Presently he turned in at a gate. I was closer up than I meant to
be, and he swung in so sudden that I had to drop quick and crouch
behind the masonry of the front garden wall. My leave pass must
a' dropped out o' my pocket and through the railin's into the
garden.

"Well, the front door must a' been on the jar for th' orficer
here just pushes it open and walks in, goin' very soft like. I
crep' in the front gate and got as far as the door w'ich was
a-standin' half open. I could 'ear the stair creakin' under 'im
and I was just wonderin' whether I should go into the house w'en
I hears a bang and wi' that someone comes aflyin' down the
stairs, dodges through the front hall and out at the back. I see
him come scramblin' over the back gate and was a-goin' to stop
him thinkin' it was th' orficer here w'en I sees it is a tubby
little chap, not big like the Captain. And then it come over me
quite sudden-like that burglary and murder had been done in the
house and wot would I say if a p'liceman come along? So I slipped
off and went as hard as I could go back to the old Union Jack
Club.

"The next mornin' I found I'd lost me leave paper. I was afraid
to go and report it in case it had been picked up, and they'd run
me in for this murder job. That's how I come to desert,
gentlemen, and spoilt a eighteen years' conduct sheet without a
entry over this murderin' spy here!"

Gunner Barling broke off abruptly as though he had committed
himself to a stronger opinion than discipline would allow. It was
the Chief who broke the silence following the termination of the
gunner's story.

"Strangwise," he said, "hadn't you better tell us who you are?"

"He's an officer of the Prussian Guard," Desmond said, "and he
was sent over here by the German secret service organization in
the United States to get a commission in the British Army. When a
good man was wanted to recover the Star of Poland for the Crown
Prince, the secret service people in Berlin sent word to
Strangwise (who was then serving with the gunners in France) to
get himself captured. The German military authorities duly
reported him a prisoner of war and then let him 'escape' as' the
easiest and least suspicious means of getting him back to
London!"

The Chief smiled genially.

"That's a dashed cle