, but I can't talk to you over the 'phone.
I've got somebody who's just called. Mother is out--and----" Then
she lowered her voice, evidently not desirous of being heard in the
adjoining room. "Well, I don't know what to do."

"What do you mean? Does it concern Mr. Henfrey?"

"Yes. It does. There's a man here to see me from Scotland Yard! What
shall I do?"

The Sparrow gasped at the girl's announcement.

Next second he recovered himself.

"A man from Scotland Yard!" he echoed. "Why has he called?"

"He knows that Mr. Henfrey is living at Shapley, in Surrey. And he has
been asking whether I am acquainted with you."

TWENTY-THIRD CHAPTER

WHAT LISETTE KNEW

A fortnight had gone by.

Ten o'clock in the morning in the Puerta del Sol, that great plaza in
Madrid--the fine square which, like the similarly-named gates at Toledo
and Segovia, commands a view of the rising sun, as does the ancient
Temple of Abu Simbel on the Nile.

Hugh Henfrey--a smart, lithe figure in blue serge--had been lounging for
ten minutes before the long facade of the Ministerio de la Gobernacion
(or Ministry of the Interior) smoking a cigarette and looking eagerly
across the great square. The two soldiers on sentry at the door,
suspicious of all foreigners in the days of Bolshevism and revolution,
had eyed him narrowly. But he appeared to be inoffensive, so they had
passed him by as a harmless lounger.

Five minutes later a smartly-dressed girl, with short skirt, silk
stockings, and a pretty hat, came along the pavement, and Hugh sprang
forward to greet her.

It was Lisette, the girl whom he had met when in hiding in that back
street in Genoa.

"Well?" he exclaimed. "So here we are! The Sparrow sent me to you."

"Yes. I had a telegram from him four days ago ordering me to meet you.
Strange things are happening--it seems!"

"How?" asked the young Englishman, in ignorance of the great conspiracy
or of what was taking place. "Since I saw you last, mademoiselle, I have
been moving about rapidly, and always in danger of arrest."

"So have I. But I am here at The Sparrow's orders--on a little business
which I hope to bring off successfully on any evening. I have an English
friend with me--a Mr. Franklyn."

"I left London suddenly. I saw The Sparrow in the evening, and next
morning, at eleven o'clock, without even a bag, I left London for Madrid
with a very useful passport."

"You are here because Madrid is safer for you than Lon