e Colonel's chamber, and had gone in there.

He hesitated a moment, and then, going close, he softly touched the
door, and felt it yield.

Just then there came a faint scratching noise, and there was a gleam of
light, showing him that the heavy curtain was drawn.

Then the light shone more clearly, and pressing the door a little more
open, he glided through.

He was about to peer out softly, when the light was set down, he heard
the soft rustle of the dress, an arm was thrust round from the far side
of the curtain, and the door was carefully closed.

"The work of a spy," he said. But a slight sound attracted his
attention, and his curiosity mastered all other feelings.

Gently sliding his hand into his pocket, he drew out a penknife, and cut
gently downwards, making a slit a few inches in length.

This he drew slightly apart and gazed through, to see that Katrine was
standing with her back to him, in the act of opening one of the large
cabinets at the side of the bed.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

BIRDS OF PREY.

Travellers in Mayfair will have noticed that every here and there
old-fashioned, snug looking hostelries exist in out-of-the-way places--
at the corner of a mews, in a private street, where they do not seem to
belong; and they are generally kept by ex-butlers, who have taken wives,
joined their savings, and gone into business with the brewers' help.

In the parlour of the "Four-in-Hand," Lower Maybush street, a party of
gentlemen's servants were playing bagatelle upon a bad board in a very
smoky atmosphere, while a knot of three men sat at one of the old,
narrow, battered mahogany tables in a corner, drinking cold gin and
water, and smoking bad cigars.

One was a little sharp-eyed, round-headed man, smartly dressed, and
evidently rather proud of a large gilt pin in his figured silk tie.
Another was tall and not ill-looking; he might have been a valet, for
there was a certain imitation gentility about his cut--a valet whose
master had been rather addicted to the turf, and this had been reflected
on his man to the extent of trousers rather too tight, short hair, and a
horseshoe pin with pearl nails. The third was rather a shabby-looking
man of forty, undoubtedly a gentleman's servant out of place, carrying
the sign in the front of the reason why, in the shape of a nose unduly
ripened by being bathed in glasses of alcoholic drink.

"Knew him how long, did you say?" said the tall man, tapping his chin
w