to-day. We are guessing what that means.
We may be right and we may be wrong. We shall see. I come to beg you to
leave the city for twenty-four hours. I find Granet on the same errand."

"But they may have warned him--some personal friend may have done
it," she insisted. "He is a man with world-wide friends and world-wide
connections."

"They why didn't he bring the warning straight to the Admiralty?"
Thomson argued. "If he were a patriotic Englishman, do you think that
any other course was open to him? It won't do, Geraldine. I know more
about Captain Granet than I am going to tell you at this moment. Shall
we leave that subject? Can't we do something to persuade your mother to
take you a little way from town? You can collect some of your friends,
if you like. You ought to take Olive, for instance. We don't want a
panic, but there is no reason why you shouldn't tell any of your friends
quietly."

The door was suddenly opened. The Admiral put his head in.

"Sorry!" he apologised. "I thought I heard that young Granet was here."

"He has been and gone, father," Geraldine told him. "You'd better see
what you can do with father," she added, turning to Thomson.

"What's wrong, eh? What's wrong? What's wrong?" the Admiral demanded.

"The fact is, Sir Seymour," Thomson explained, "we've had notice--not
exactly notice, but we've decoded a secret dispatch which gives us
reason to believe that a Zeppelin raid will be attempted on London
during the next twenty-four hours. I came round to try and induce
Geraldine to have you all move away until the thing's over."

"I'll be damned if I do!" the Admiral grunted. "What, sneak off and
leave five or six million others who haven't had the tip, to see all the
fun? Not I! If what you say is true, Thomson,--and I am going straight
back to the Admiralty,--I shall find my way on to one of the air
stations myself, and the women can stay at home and get ready to be
useful."

Geraldine passed her hand through her father's arm.

"That's the sort of people we are," she laughed, turning to Thomson.
"All the same, Hugh, it was very nice of you to come," she added. "I
couldn't see us scuttling away into the country, you know. I shall go
round and persuade Olive to stay with me. I am expecting to return
to Boulogne almost at once, to the hospital there, to bring some more
wounded back. I may get a little practice here."

Thomson picked up his hat.

"Well," he said quietly, "I cannot com