friend; I knew you had
escaped from Dartmoor and disappeared somewhere in the neighbourhood
of McMurtrie's place, and putting two and two together there was only
one conclusion I could possibly come to."

"My appearance must have taken a little getting over," I suggested.

Latimer shrugged his shoulders. "Apart from your features you exactly
fitted the bill, and I had learned enough about McMurtrie's past
performances not to let that worry me. What I couldn't make out was
why he should have run the risk of helping you. Of course you might
have offered him a large sum of money--if you had it put away
somewhere--but in that case there seemed no reason why you should be
hanging about in a hut on the Thames marshes."

"Why didn't you tell the police?" asked Tommy.

"The police!" Latimer's voice was full of pleasant irony. "My dear
Morrison, we don't drag the police into this sort of business; our
great object is to keep them out of it. Mr. Lyndon's affairs had
nothing to do with me officially apart from his being mixed up with
McMurtrie. Besides, my private sympathies were entirely with him. Not
only had he tried to save my life at Parelli's, but ever since the
trial I have always been under the impression he was fully entitled to
slaughter Mr.--Mr.--whatever the scoundrel's name was."

I acknowledged the remark with a slight bow. "Thank you," I said. "As
a matter of sober fact I didn't kill him, but I shouldn't be the least
sorry for it if I had."

Latimer looked at me for a moment straight in the eyes.

"We've treated you beautifully as a nation," he said slowly. "It's an
impertinence on my part to expect you to help us."

I laughed. "Go on," I said. "Let's get it straightened out anyhow."

"Well, the straightening out must be largely done by you. As far as
I'm concerned the rest of the story can be told very quickly. For
various reasons I got to the conclusion that in some way or other the
two gentlemen on Sheppey had a good deal to do with the matter. My men
had been making a few inquiries about them, and from what we'd learned
I was strongly inclined to think they were a couple of German naval
officers over here on leave. If that was so, the fact that they were
in communication with Hoffman made it pretty plain where McMurtrie was
finding his market. My men had told me they were generally away on the
mainland in the evening, and I made up my mind I'd have a look at the
place the first chance I got. I asked M