slips of paper and looked at them for a moment. Then he
lifted a cardboard folder from the desk in front of him, opened it and
displayed the other half of the Kaiser's letter, the fragment I had
believed to be reposing in a bag at Rotterdam railway station. He placed
the two fragments side by side. They fitted exactly. Then he closed the
folder, carried it across the room to a safe and locked it up. Coming
back, he held out his two hands to us, giving the right to me, the left
to Francis.

"You have done very well," he said. "Good boys! Good boys!"

"But that other half ..." I began.

"Your friend Ashcroft is by no means such a fool as he looks," the Chief
chuckled. "He did a wise thing. He brought your two letters to me. I saw
to the rest. So, when your brother's telegram arrived from Rotterdam, I
got the other half of the letter out of the safe; I thought I'd be ready
for you, you see!"

"But how did you know we had the remaining portion of the letter?" I
asked.

The Chief chuckled again.

"My young men don't wire for cars to meet 'em at the station when they
have failed," he replied. "Now, tell me all about it!"

So I told him my whole story from the beginning.

When I had finished, he said:

"You appear to have a very fine natural disposition for our game,
Okewood. It seems a pity to waste it in regimental work ..."

I broke in hastily.

"I've got a few weeks' sick leave left," I said, "and after that I was
looking forward to going back to the front for a rest. This sort of
thing is too exciting for me!"

"Well, well," answered the Chief, "we'll see about that afterwards. In
the meantime, we shall not forget what you have done ... and I shall see
that it is not forgotten elsewhere."

On that we left him. It was only outside that I remembered that he had
told me nothing of what I was burning to know about the origin and
disappearance of the Kaiser's letter.

It was my old friend, Red Tabs, whom I met on one of our many visits to
mysterious but obviously important officials, that finally cleared up
for me the many obscure points in this adventure of mine. When he saw me
he burst out laughing.

"'Pon my soul," he grinned, "you seem to be able to act on a hint, don't
you?"

Then he told me the story of the Kaiser's letter.

"There is no need to speak of the contents of this amazing letter," he
began, "for you are probably more familiar with them than I am. The date
alone will suffice ... July 31st