r's home is here!"

"What car?"

"The car which used to meet the German maid at Metfield," was his
matter-of-fact reply. "For the present we know sufficient. We must look
sharp if we are to be in Beccles before eight. If we're not there
before, it will be of no use."

So we hurried back to our own car, and our driver, by taking a by-path,
brought us out upon the main road again at Thorpe Market, and just after
half-past seven we pulled up before the hotel in the old Suffolk market
town of Beccles, under the shadow of the stumpy square old church tower.

The car was garaged, and after a drink we went forth for a walk along
the quiet old-world streets, until suddenly upon a corner we came to the
post office, a large old-fashioned two-storied house with steep tiled
roof.

"Wait about here," my companion said; "a dark-haired man in a light grey
overcoat and golf-cap will probably come to post a letter just before
eight. He has a dark brown beard, and usually wears a white muffler.
When he comes follow him, and see where he goes. He may know me, so I
must keep out of sight."

Therefore I lit my pipe, and idled up and down, keeping the letter-box
in view. In the window, directly above it, was a clock which showed it
then to be a quarter to eight. I took a pretended interest in the small
shops near, until about four minutes to the hour a closed motor-car
swung round from the direction of the Public Hail, and pulled up before
the post office.

From it two men alighted--one a youngish fair-haired man, and the other,
dark-bearded and much older, wore a thick grey overcoat and a white
muffler. He was the man of whom I was in search.

I entered the office directly after the pair, on pretence of buying
stamps, but already the elder of the two had handed in a letter to be
registered, the address of which I failed to discern.

Both seemed to be in a great hurry, for as soon as the receipt was
written out they re-entered the car and drove back in the direction they
had come, leaving me standing helpless on the opposite side of the road.

Immediately I returned to the hotel where Ray was waiting, and reported
to him, whereupon he seized his hat, and walking with me back to the
post office halted in the centre of the road examining the wheel-tracks,
which were still quite plain upon the damp roadway.

Then, as he walked back, he said:

"Do you know, Jack, that this town Beccles has been decided upon by the
Germans as the h