courage! Tell your chiefs
everything--everything!"

The wretched man shook his head.

"Never! Never, Monsieur--I could not do it. Think, Monsieur: it is the
vilest of vile things I have done--I, a soldier of France--of France,
Monsieur!... You spoke of my mother! It is because of her I wish to
kill myself! You must know that she is an Alsatian!... She would go
mad--mad, Monsieur, if she learned that her son has betrayed
France!... This evening Corporal Vinson will no longer exist--it will
be well finished with him!"

There was a great silence.

Fandor, with his arms folded and anxious brow, was pacing up and down
his study, seeking a solution of this frightful problem, asking
himself what was to be done.... He saw that this miserable Vinson was
caught in the wheels of a terrible machine, from which it was almost
impossible to snatch him into safety. Nevertheless, his conscience
revolted at the idea that he should do nothing to avert this wretched
lad's suicide. He must stop Vinson--he must certainly save him from
himself at any price, save him doubly!

Then Fandor saw further than this.

He perceived that good may come out of evil: perhaps through Vinson
and his relations with this nefarious nest of spies, they would
succeed in clearing up the dark mystery surrounding the death of
Captain Brocq. Evidently all these happenings were interconnected!...

With his mind's eye, Fandor saw this foreign spy system under the form
of an immense--a vast spider's web. Could one but lay hands on the
originator of the initial thread, or the master-spider himself, then
they could strike at the extreme ends of this evil tissue.

* * * * *

Fandor admonished Vinson for a long time. Our journalist was now
eloquent, now persuasive: he heaped argument on argument, he appealed
to his self-respect, to duty! When at last he saw that the young
corporal hesitated, that a faint gleam of hope appeared, that a vague
desire for rehabilitation was born in him, he stopped short and
demanded abruptly:

"Vinson, are you still bent on killing yourself?"

The corporal communed with himself a moment, closed his eyes, and,
without a touch of insincerity, replied in a steady voice:

"Yes, I have decided to do it."

"In that case," said Fandor, "will you look on the deed as done, and
take it that you are no longer in existence?"

The corporal stared at Fandor, speechless, absolutely dumbfounded.
Fandor made hi