boat. Use some
quick simple cypher--suppose we say the alphabet backwards, Z for A
and so on. Have you got plenty of money?"

I nodded. "I should like to have some sort of notion what you're going
to do," I said. "It would be much more inspiriting than working in the
dark."

"It depends entirely on the next two days. I shall go back to London
tonight and find out if either of my men has got hold of any fresh
information. Then I shall put the whole thing in front of Casement. If
he agrees with me I shall wait till the last possible moment before
striking. We've enough evidence about the Devonport case to arrest
McMurtrie and Savaroff straight away, but I feel it would be madness
while there's a chance of getting to the bottom of this business.
Perhaps you understand now why I've risked everything tonight. We're
playing for high stakes, Mr. Lyndon, and you--" he paused--"well, I'm
inclined to think that you've the ace of trumps."

I stood up and faced him. "I hope so," I said. "I'm rather tired of
being taken for the Knave."

"Isn't there a job for me?" asked Tommy pathetically. "I'm open for
anything, especially if it wants a bit of physical violence."

"There will probably be a demand for that a little later on," said
Latimer in his quiet drawl. "At present I want you to come back with
me to London. I shall find plenty for you to do there, Morrison. The
fewer people that are mixed up in this affair the better." He turned
to me. "You can take the boat back to Tilbury alone if we go ashore
here?"

I nodded, and he once more held out his hand.

"We shall meet again soon," he said--"very soon I think. Have you ever
read Longfellow?"

It was such a surprising question that I couldn't help smiling.

"Not recently," I said. "I haven't been in the mood for poetry the
last two or three years."

He held my hand and his blue eyes looked steadily into mine.

"Ah," he said. "I don't want to be too optimistic, but there's a verse
in Longfellow which I think you might like." He paused again. "It has
something to do with the Mills of God," he added slowly.

CHAPTER XXI

SONIA'S SUDDEN VISIT

One's feelings are queer things. Personally I never have the least
notion how a particular situation will affect me until I happen to
find myself in it.

I should have thought, for instance, that Latimer's revelations would
have left me in a state of vast excitement, but as a matter of fact
I don't think I ever felt co