irection that
Latimer had taken. For the rest, as soon as my eyes were used to the
gloom, I made out a camp bed with blankets on it, a small wooden table
and chair, a jug and basin, and in the farther corner of the room a
miscellaneous collection of cooking and eating utensils. There was
also a large wooden box which I imagined to contain food.

I took in all this practically at a glance, for my mind was still too
occupied with my late visitor to trouble much about anything else.

I sat down on the bed and tried to think out the situation clearly.
There could be no doubt that Latimer had been spying on the place,
if such an unpleasant word could be applied to a gentleman who was
supposed to be in Government service. The question was, what did he
suspect? I had pretty good evidence that he was up against McMurtrie
and the others in some shape or other, and presumably it was on
account of my connection with them that I had been favoured with his
attentions. Still, this didn't seem to make the situation any the more
cheerful for me. If Latimer was really a secret-service man, as some
one had told Tommy, it stood to reason that I must be assisting in
some particularly shady and dangerous sort of enterprise. I had no
special objection to this from the moral point of view, but on the
other hand I certainly didn't want to throw away my hardly-won liberty
before I had had the satisfaction of settling accounts with George.

I debated with myself whether it would be best to let McMurtrie know
that the place was being watched. To a certain extent his interests in
the matter seemed to be identical with mine, but my mistrust of him
was still strong enough to make me hesitate. Beyond his bare word and
that of Sonia I had no proof as yet that he intended to play straight
with me.

One thing appeared certain, and that was that Latimer had failed to
recognize me as the man who had sent him the warning at Parelli's. In
a way this gave me an advantage, but it was a forlorn enough sort of
advantage in view of the unknown dangers by which I was surrounded.

I got up off the bed, feeling anything but comfortable, and going to
the door had another look round. Latimer had disappeared behind the
thin belt of trees that fringed the Tilbury road, and so far as I
could see there was no one else about. Getting out my keys, I walked
along to the shed and opened the door.

If my living accommodation was a trifle crude, McMurtrie had certainly