as
speaking with a police-inspector in uniform, who called at the hotel to
see me, eh?"

"Yes. He looked round the car and spoke to me. I thought he'd come to
take our name for exceeding the limit on the Staines road."

"You'd remember him again if you saw him?"

"Certainly," was my prompt reply.

"Well, don't forget him," he urged, "because you may, before long, be
required to meet him. And if you should chance to mistake the man, a
very serious _contretemps_ would ensue."

"I'd recognise him again among a thousand!" I declared.

"Good. Now listen attentively to me for a few minutes," he said,
lighting a fresh cigarette and fixing his dark, penetrating eyes upon
mine. "I and my friend Shand have a very difficult task. A certain
Colonel von Rausch, of the German Intelligence Department, is, we have
discovered, in England on a secret mission. It is suspected that he is
here controlling a number of spies who had been engaged in staff-rides
in the eastern counties, and to receive their reports. My object is to
learn the truth, and it can only be done by great tact and caution. I
tell you this so that any orders I give you may not surprise you. Obey,
and do not seek motive. Am I clear?"

"Certainly," I answered, interested in what he told me. It was curious
that he, undoubtedly a German, was at the same time antagonistic to the
colonel of the Kaiser's army.

"Well, I'm leaving London in an hour. Await orders from me, and obey
them promptly," he said, dismissing me.

Through that day and the next I waited. He had taken William with him
into the country, and left me alone in the flat. Once or twice the
telephone rang, but to the various inquirers I replied that my master
was absent.

Inactivity there was tantalising. I was naturally fond of adventure, and
I had taken on the guise of chauffeur surely for the unmasking of a
foreign spy.

On the third day, about two in the afternoon, I received a trunk call on
the 'phone. The post office at Market Harborough called me up, and the
voice which I heard was that of my master.

"Oh! that's you, Nye!" he said. "Well, I want you to start in the car
in an hour, and run her up to Peterborough. When in the Market Place,
inquire the road to Edgcott Hall. It's about six miles out on the
Leicester road. Inquire for me there as Captain Kinghorne--remember the
name now. Do you hear distinctly?"

I replied in the affirmative.

"Recollect what I told you before I left. I shall