d to Blythe when he brushed past me in
the corridor. At Pepinster, the junction for Spa, we both descended to
obtain some refreshment, and when we returned to our carriage the
Captain glanced reassuringly at his bag. Bindo passed along the
corridor, and I knew the truth. Then on arrival at Liege I left the
Captain smoking, and strolled to the back end of the carriage, waiting
for the train to move off. Just as it did so I sprang out upon the
platform, and had the satisfaction of seeing, a moment later, the red
tail-lights of the Berlin express disappear. I fancy I saw the Captain's
head out of the window and heard him shout, but next instant he was lost
in the darkness."

"As soon as you had both got out at Pepinster Blythe slipped into the
compartment, broke the lock of the bag with a special tool we call 'the
snipper,' and had the papers in a moment. These he passed on to me, and
travelled past Liege on to Aix.

"Here are the precious plans," remarked the Count, producing a
voluminous packet in a big blue envelope, the seal of which had been
broken.

And on opening this he displayed to me a quantity of carefully drawn
plans of the whole canal system, and secret defences between the Rhine
and the Meuse, the waterway, he explained, which one day Germany, in
time of war with England, will require to use in order to get her troops
through to the port of Antwerp, and the Belgian coast--the first
complete and reliable plans ever obtained of the chain of formidable
defences that Belgium keeps a profound secret.

What sum was paid to the pretty Valentine by the French Intelligence
Department for them I am not aware. I only know that she one day sent me
a beautiful gold cigarette-case inscribed with the words "From Liane de
Bourbriac," and inside it was a draft on the London branch of the Credit
Lyonnais for eight hundred and fifty pounds.

Captain Otto Stolberg has, I hear, been transferred as attache to
another European capital. No doubt his first thoughts were of revenge,
but on mature consideration he deemed it best to keep his mouth closed,
or he would have betrayed himself as a spy. Bindo had, no doubt,
foreseen that. As for Valentine, she actually declares that, after all,
she merely rendered a service to her country!

CHAPTER IV

A RUN WITH ROSALIE

Several months had elapsed since my adventure with "Valentine of the
Beautiful Eyes."

From Germany Count Bindo di Ferraris had sent me with the car rig