ts
and destroyers--To mount ten 4-inch quick-firing
guns--Wrought-iron palisading in ditch well covered from
seaward--Gorge closed by stone wall (two tiers of loopholes for
musketry), flanked by caponiers with machine-guns.

I. A large and formidable work armed with--

Portion of translation of the German spy's report upon the new
naval base at Rosyth.

After Sir Archibald had put the questions in the House, the purport of
which most readers will remember, he had been the recipient of many
letters pointing out the presence of spies--letters which, if published,
would have no doubt created a great sensation. Many of these statements
Ray and I had, during the past two months, closely investigated on the
spot, and what we had discovered held us both amazed and alarmed.
Indeed, we had secured evidence that although spies were openly at work
in certain of our eastern counties collecting all sorts of information
which would be of incalculable importance to an invader, yet the chief
constables of those counties had actually been instructed from
head-quarters to close their eyes to the movements of inquisitive
foreigners!

In the investigations upon which Ray Raymond had embarked with such
enthusiasm, and which I am now permitted to chronicle in these pages, he
had taken only two persons into his confidence--myself and Vera, the
pretty, fair-haired daughter of Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Vallance, the
Admiral-Superintendent of Portsmouth Dockyard, to whom he was engaged.

Indeed, from the first I suspected that it had been her influence that
had roused him to action; she who had promised him her assistance, and
who had pointed out how, by watching and unmasking the spies, he might
render his King and country signal service.

At dusk that day we had, on arrival from King's Cross, left our baggage
with the hall porter of the North British Hotel in Edinburgh, had
travelled from the Waverley Station to Dalmeny, and descending the
hundred or so steps to the comfortable Hawes Inn, at the water's edge,
had dined there. Thence we had taken the old ferry-boat over to North
Queensferry, on the opposite shore, where, in the rather bare parlour of
the little Albert Hotel, directly beneath the giant arms of the Forth
Bridge, we were resting and smoking.

Outside the November night was dark and squally with drizzling rain;
within the warmth was cheerful, the fire throwing a red glow upon the
old-fashi