e mining
activity is great? I continue the theory, you see; that's all."

He looked at Jesson, who made no reply; though without cessation he
moistened his lips with his tongue.

"A miner." The Adjutant's voice cut in. "Go on, for God's sake."

"Precisely--a miner. The second point of detail; and two points of
detail are a strange coincidence--nothing more. Only--there is a
third."

"And three are a moral certainty, as you've often said." The Adjutant
once again bent across the table and spoke softly. "Are you fooling,
Dickie--are you fooling? If so, the joke has gone far enough."

But the Sapper's eyes were fixed on a leg that twitched, and they
wandered now and then to a neck where--even in the dim light of a
candle--he could see a pulse throbbing--throbbing.

"It's not a joke," he said, and his mouth was dry. "What is the third
point of detail, Dickie?"

"Yes, what is the third point of detail, sir?" Jesson's voice was
steady as a rock. "I am very interested in your problem." He raised
his hands from the table and stretched them in front of him. Not a
finger quivered, and with a sublime insolence he examined his nails.

To the Sapper there occurred suddenly those lines of Kipling,

"For there is neither East nor West, border nor breed nor birth,
When two strong men come face to face though they come from
the ends of the earth."

He _knew_ now; he realised the man beside him was a German; he knew
that the sentence of death was very near. What the clue was that had
given the man away he hardly thought about--in fact, he hardly cared.
All he knew was that death was waiting for the man beside him, and that
his hands were steady as a rock.

Quietly Staunton leant forward and undid Jesson's mackintosh. Then he
sat back and with his finger he pointed at a spot above his left
breast-pocket. "You have never been out to the front, you say; your
coat is a new one by Jones & Jones; and yet--until recently--you have
been wearing the ribbon of a medal. What medal, Jesson, what medal?
It shows up, that clean patch in the light. John Brinton went to Jones
& Jones; and John Brinton had a Military Cross."

For a full minute the two men looked into one another's eyes--deep
down, and read the things that are written underneath, be a man English
or German. Then suddenly Jesson smiled slightly and spoke.

"You are a clever man, Major Staunton. When will the rifle practice
take place?"