.

"I just want to tell you all you have said about van Heerden is true. He
is a most dangerous man. He may yet be dangerous to you. I don't want
you to touch that little book unless you are in really serious trouble.
Will you promise me?"

She opened her eyes wide.

"But, Mr. Beale----?"

"Will you promise me?" he said again.

"Of course I'll promise you, but I don't quite understand."

"You will understand," he said.

He opened the door for her and she passed out ahead of him. Kitson came
to meet them.

"I suppose there is no news?" asked Stanford.

"None," said the other, "except high political news. There has been an
exchange of notes between the Triple Alliance and the German Government.
All communication with the Ukraine is cut off, and three ships have been
sunk in the Bosphorus so cleverly that our grain ships in the Black Sea
are isolated."

"That's bad," said Beale.

He walked to the table. It was littered with maps and charts and printed
tabulations. McNorton got up and joined them.

"I have just had a 'phone message through from the Yard," he said.
"Carter, my assistant, says that he's certain van Heerden has not left
London."

"Has the girl spoken?"

"Glaum? No, she's as dumb as an oyster. I doubt if you would get her to
speak even if you put her through the third degree, and we don't allow
that."

"So I am told," said Beale dryly.

There was a knock at the door.

"Unlock it somebody," said Kitson. "I turned the key."

The nearest person was the member of the Corn Exchange Committee, and he
clicked back the lock and the door opened to admit a waiter.

"There's a man here----" he said; but before he could say more he was
pushed aside and a dusty, dishevelled figure stepped into the room and
glanced round.

"My name is Milsom," he said. "I have come to give King's Evidence!"

CHAPTER XXIX

THE LOST CODE

"I'm Milsom," said the man in the doorway again.

His clothes were grimed and dusty, his collar limp and soiled. There
were two days' growth of red-grey stubble on his big jaw, and he bore
himself like a man who was faint from lack of sleep.

He walked unsteadily to the table and fell into a chair.

"Where is van Heerden?" asked Beale, but Milsom shook his head.

"I left him two hours ago, after a long and unprofitable talk on
patriotism," he said, and laughed shortly. "At that time he was making
his way back to his house in Southwark."

"Then he is in London--he