The White Lie

-faced man in grey

hest village in all England-and Francis Goring, recognising him, bade a hurried fa

and the German

double-throw switch, examined the tiny point of lig

panied me here yesterday," exclaimed Barclay, when t

entleman who was

on the road last

rman, staring at hi

iles from here, and his motor-cy

a mit a lady over at the hotel. I saw them there

ce are now search

inding her, I suppose-hein?" the engine

, I thought you only arrived here from Ger

ago. She call herself Fr?ulein Montague, and vos aw

recogni

very reserved but very shrewd young lady," replied Herr Otto Stran

repeated. "Do you kno

as he busied himself carefully screwing d

name in a tiny memorandum-book which h

n most of the ward-rooms of His Majesty's Navy-and then endeavoured to

new cable which was so soon to form yet another direct link between Berlin and

g-was dead, seemed to cause the cable-engineer considerable reflection. He said nothing, but a close observer would have noticed that the report of the murder had had a

n considering the best and most diplomatic means by which the mis

e round brass clock-examining the tiny point of light which resulted, and carefully registering the exact amount of c

lly came to pass, all those, together with the shore-ends of the cables, would be seized by advance parties of Germans already upon British soil-picked men, soldiers all, who were already living to-day in readiness upon the East Coast of England as hotel-servants, clerks or workers in other trades. Our shrewd, busine

out a message to the ship, raised his head, and with a smile upon

if the truth were told, England hardly wel

ound goggles higher upon his brow, "we sometim

r, smiling and elevating hi

my as a bogey," Noel Barclay remarked. "But surely it is not impossible, or

s my private opinion as a Deutscher, and as one who has a

ly from country to country in disregard of diplomatic frontiers, while your German airships-unfortunate as they may be-have actually crosse

rds who actually saw them were d

be transmitted five thousand miles to-day, and who knows that it may not be possible to-morrow, by directing similar

Germany was more improbable than it is to-day, for each day, I fear, bri

e, every nerve, every muscle, if we are to repel you," rem

ngland, but you, as a British officer, know quite well that one day the powder magazine will explode a

an now do is to remain good friends as long

o offence, sir. If it has, then I beg you to accept my most sincere apologies. You ar

ding his hand frankly. "We have both exchanged our opinions. In most I agree with you

's response, and while he turned again to pull over the testing-switch and b

at the cable might be successfully completed and inaugurated on the morrow; strode out into the village street, and down the "Gap" to

airman, wished him good afternoon; but his thoughts were centred upon the m

y selling to a foreign power a certain secret concerning "plotting." For that reason, it was said, he had lived so constantly abroad. Though

pon that calm blue summer sea, bathed in the warm light of that August afternoon,

of the open Norfolk coast so aptly termed Poppyland? That he was not there as a summer visitor was quite certain. He had his headquarters in Norwich

s fair companion was also remarkable. What co

e flight back to the hangars standing on the shore beyond Yarmouth. The "old bus," as the fine Bleriot monoplane was affectionately termed by the four flying-officers at the air stat

own upon a boat to think, the whit

en, intense look, and whose countenance was one which once seen would be easily remembered, lounged into the Old Ship Hotel. He was accompanied by a pretty, dark-haired girl in a summer gown of cream serge and wearing a neat little hat of

tailor, and he wore them with that easy nonchalance of the English golfer, while his pretty, dark-eyed companion, although her go

lage street, "this is a very interesting little place, I believe. We will have a stroll a

king from Overstrand, where they had been to see that lonely, crumbling old church tower which the late Clement Sco

diamond engagement ring, an ornament which meant so very much to

sion upon his hard, aquiline face as he turned away was a strange, unusual one, though, perhaps unfortunately fo

s inexorable, and says he must get back to business, while, as you know, I am due back at the Maison Collet

a time to your modes and your hat-making and your workroom friends. But only until No

il his lips touched hers. "I will remain patient, Ralph, till then, even though all the girls may

oments; then he sprang from her side

cup of tea he suddenly ex

u would excuse me if I leave you here for te

"I shall be quite all right, Ralph.

onger than possible," and, taking up his cap

bout half-pas

nged. A haunted, wild look shone in her dark, terrified eyes, an

beach," she went on in French. "I must get away from this accursed place as soon as ever Ralph returns. What if he is suspected? Besides, the police may be looking for me, as it must now be known that I was here with him in Mundesley yesterday. Ah, yes! I was a fool to dare to return like t

chair in the old-fashioned room, and sat, white-faced

ime he turned, as though he feared that he might be followed, but there being nobody in the vicinity, he suddenly, when about half a mile from the village, struggled through

tched a wide heath covered with gorse, and

t of wood painted to resemble steel. He advanced to the left wing-spar of the monoplane and, apparently possessing expert knowledge of the point where it wa

e bolt in his pocket, he crept back again beneath the hedge, and ten minutes later reached

ere he had left his machine. He passed the young foreigner without recognition. The man in the golf suit was a mere summer visitor, and to his knowle

ly after him, an evil expression upon his strong, clean-shaven

glance or his malediction, while the foreigner, with a crafty smile of triumph,

sternation, and at once rang and ordered

s seated happily at her lover's side, slowly ascending the hill on the cliff-road lea

usiastically, turning and watching with interest the nav

ky in a wide spiral higher and higher, twice passing over their heads, until he had reached an altitude of fully eight hundred feet. Then, aft

irl as she covered her face with her hands to s

ad broken her wing, which rose at right angles, and then the machine, out of co