nburnt. It was more than likely that he had not got a good look at
me--in that case he would not know me again, as I flattered myself that
there was nothing very distinctive about me. Still, as that marksman
behind the rocks must have been taking stock of me for some considerable
while, I realised that no definite advantage would accrue from the fact
that one of the gang might not be able to identify me. I had no means of
ascertaining how many there were in the organisation, and something
warned me not to display too much interest in Bryce's presence. When I
walked down the path and discovered him backing the car into his garage
I made no comment on the situation beyond telling him that the spy had
gone temporarily out of business and was at present taking a
constitutional down the street.

"All we can do then," Bryce said, "is to let him depart in peace and
trust that nothing happens. I wouldn't like any of that bunch to be cut
off in the midst of their sins. I've got another end mapped out for
them."

"If you figure me in on that, you're mighty mistaken," I said to myself.
"I'm the first line of defence, but I'll be hanged if I'm going to carry
the war into the enemy's country."

I needn't have been so cocksure about it, for as will shortly be related
that was just exactly what I did do.

CHAPTER III.

THE STRANGE BEHAVIOUR OF MR. BRYCE.

I made an excellent dinner. Bryce's kitchen and the meat-safes attached
proved on investigation to contain enough food for a family. First of
all I had a wash, and then when I felt a little more presentable, I dug
up a frying-pan, asked Bryce if he liked sausages and, being told that
he did, thanked Heaven that his tastes were similar to mine and set
about cooking them. Now I like my sausages fried nice and crisp, but I
have yet to find the lodging-house keeper this side of Gehenna who can
fry anything without burning it to a cinder. Though I don't wish to
crack up my own work, I'll say this for it--that, if I do like things
done any particular way, I can always be sure of pleasing myself if I do
the cooking.

I cooked with one eye on the gas-stove and the other on Bryce. I had
scarcely set to work before he wandered into the kitchen, found the
nail-brush or whatever it was that the cook used for cleaning the pots,
washed the black loam off the piece of wood which had so excited my
curiosity earlier in the day, and then commenced to scrub it. He used up
an inordinate