iew of a profile as regular as a canoe."--_New Magazine._

* * * * *

AT THE PLAY.

"THE MAN WHO STAYED AT HOME."

No, he was not a shirker, as you thought. Nor was he engaged in making
munitions of war, or khaki, or woollens, or military boots, or in
exporting cocoa to the enemy _via_ neutral Holland--that roaring
monopoly of the Pacificist. His business was to spy at spies--a task
that called for as much coolness and courage as any job at the Front.
And so when the officious flapper presented him with a white feather he
had no use for it except as a pipe-cleaner.

For his purpose _Christopher Brent_ had taken up his residence at a
"select boarding establishment" on the East Coast, which contained the
following members of the German Secret Service: _Mrs. Sanderson_,
proprietress; _Carl_, her son, clerk in the British Admiralty; _Fraeulein
Schroeder_, boarder, and _Fritz_, waiter. Their design, if I rightly
penetrated its darkness, was to give information of the whereabouts of a
certain section of the Expeditionary Force which was "coming through
from the North"; to supply Berlin with plans of the coast defences; and
finally to give a signal to a German submarine by the firing of the
house, which would incidentally mean the roasting alive of its innocent
contents. All this (for the sake of ARISTOTLE and the Unities) was to
take place in a single day, though I for one could not believe that
either the pigeon post or the ordinary mail would be equal to the
strain.

Their utensils included a Marconi instrument concealed in the chimney; a
bomb; a revolver; maps of the minefield and harbour; a carrier-pigeon,
and a knife for disposing of the cliff-sentry.

To frustrate their schemes something more was needed than the wit of
_Brent_ and his ally, the widow _Leigh_; something more, even, than his
skill in shooting pigeons in flight with an air-rifle. The vacuum was
supplied by the crass stupidity of the EMPEROR'S minions. Even when full
credit is given to _Brent_ for letting his bath overflow so as to flood
the public salon and render it untenable, it was surely unwise of _Mrs.
Sanderson_ to offer her private parlour for the use of the boarders on
the very day set apart for the execution of her plans which were centred
in this room. It was also gross carelessness on the part of her son,
when he had _Brent_, with hands up, at his mercy, to place his own
revolver on the table and to use, in