rough line between Berlin and London."

Lieutenant Barclay was silent. A sudden thought crossed his mind. At
Bacton, a couple of miles farther down the coast, the two existing
cables went out to the German shore. But this additional line would
prove of immense value if ever the army of the great War Lord attempted
an invasion of our island.

As a well-known naval aviator, and as chief of the whole chain of
air-stations along the East Coast, the lieutenant's mind was naturally
ever set upon the possibility of projected invasion, and of an adequate
defence. That a danger really existed had at last been tardily admitted
by the Government, and now with our Navy redistributed and centred in
the North Sea, our destroyer-flotillas exercising nightly, and the
establishment of the wireless at Felixstowe, Caister, Cleethorpes,
Scarborough, and Hunstanton, as well as the construction of naval
air-stations, with their aeroplanes and hydroplanes from the Nore up to
Cromarty we were at last on the alert for any emergency.

When would "_Der Tag_" ("The Day")--as it was toasted every evening in
the military messes of the German Empire--dawn? Aye, when? Who could
say?

CHAPTER II.

CONCERNS A PRETTY STRANGER.

A short, puffy, red-faced man in grey flannels went past.

It was Sir Hubert Atherton, of Overstrand--that little place declared to
be the richest village in all England--and Francis Goring, recognising
him, bade a hurried farewell to his naval friend, and with a hasty word
of thanks to the German, went out.

The naval airman and the German were left alone.

Again the round-faced cable engineer pulled over the double-throw
switch, examined the tiny point of light upon the gauge, and registered
its exact position.

"You remember, Herr Strantz, the gentleman who accompanied me here
yesterday," exclaimed Barclay, when the engineer had finished writing up
his technical log.

"Certainly. Der gentleman who was a motor-cyclist?"

"Yes. He was found on the road last evening, murdered."

"Zo!" gasped the German, staring at his visitor. "Killed!"

"Yes; stabbed to death fifteen miles from here, and his motor-cycle was
missing. It is a mystery."

"Astounding!" exclaimed Herr Strantz. "He took tea mit a lady over at
the hotel. I saw them there when I went off duty at half-past three
o'clock."

"I know. The police are now searching for that lady."

"Dey will not have much difficulty in finding her, I suppose--hein