The candles were unlit. All was therefore in order. The dressing-bag was, however, not there. I searched for it in vain. Then stealing out again I sped by the footpath back to the car.
Somebody hailed me in the darkness as I approached the spot where I had left her.
I recognized the spy"s voice.
"Have you see Herr Brackenbury?" he asked in his broken English.
I halted, amazed. The spy had, it seemed, outwitted us and upset all our plans!
Scarcely could I reply, however, before I heard a movement behind me, and two figures loomed up. They were my master and Shand.
"All right?" inquired the American in a low voice, to which the spy gave an affirmative answer.
"Light those lamps, Nye," ordered my master quickly. "We must get away this instant."
"But----" I exclaimed.
"Quick, my dear fellow! There"s not a moment to lose. Jump in, boys," he urged.
And a couple of minutes later, with our lamps glaring, we had turned out upon the broad highway and were travelling at a full forty miles an hour upon the high road to Leicester.
What could it all mean? My master and his companion seemed on the most friendly terms with the spy.
Ten miles from the lodge-gates of Edgcott at a cross-road we picked up an ill-dressed man whom I recognised as the Baptist missionary, Richard Raven, and with the Honourable Bob at my side directing me we tore on through the night, traversing numberless by-roads, until at dawn I suddenly recognised that we were on the North Road, close to Codicote.
A quarter of an hour later we had run the car round to the rear of Shand"s pretty rose-embowered cottage, and all descended.
I made excuse to the Honourable Bob that the screw top of the radiator was missing, whereupon von Rausch laughed heartily, and picking up a piece of wire from the bench he bent it so as to form a hook, and with it fished down in the hot water inside.
His companions stood watching, but judge my surprise when I saw him of a sudden draw forth a small aluminium cylinder, the top of which he screwed off and from it took out a piece of tracing-linen tightly folded.
This he spread out, and my quick eyes saw that it was a carefully drawn tracing of a portion of the new type of battleship of the _Neptune_ cla.s.s (the improved _Dreadnought_ type), with many marginal notes in German in a feminine hand.
In an instant the astounding truth became plain to me. The Baronne, who was in von Rausch"s employ, had no doubt surrept.i.tiously obtained the original from Mr. Henry Seymour"s despatch-box, it having been sent down to him to Edgcott for his approval.
A most important British naval secret was, I saw, in the hands of the clever spies of the Kaiser!
I made no remark, for in presence of those men was I not helpless?
They took the tracing in the house, and for half an hour held carousal in celebration of their success.
Presently Brackenbury came forth to me and said:
"The Colonel is going to Harwich this evening, and you must drive him.
The boat for the "Hook" leaves at half-past ten, I think."
"Very well, sir," I replied, with apparent indifference. "I shall be quite ready."
At seven we started, von Rausch and I, and until darkness fell I drove eastward, when at last we found ourselves in Ipswich.
Suddenly, close to the White Horse Hotel and within hailing distance of a police-constable, I brought the car to a dead stop, and turning to the German, who was seated beside me, said in as quiet a tone as I could:
"Colonel von Rausch, I"ll just trouble you to hand over to me the tracing you and your friends have stolen from Mr. Henry Seymour--the details of the new battleship about to be built at Chatham."
"What do you mean?" cried the spy. "Drive on, you fool. I have no time to lose."
"I wish for that tracing," I said, whipping out the revolver I always carried. "Give it to me."
"What next!" he laughed, in open defiance. "Who are you, a mere servant, that you should dictate to me?"
"I"m an Englishman!" I replied. "And I"ll not allow you to take that secret to your employers in Berlin."
The Colonel glanced round in some confusion. He was evidently averse to a scene in that open street.
"Come into the hotel yonder," he said. "We can discuss the matter there."
"It admits of no discussion," I said firmly. "You will hand me the tracing over which you have so ingeniously deceived me, or I shall call the constable yonder and have you detained while we communicate with the Admiralty."
"Drive on, I tell you," he cried in anger. "Don"t be an a.s.s!"
"I am not a fool," I answered. "Give me that tracing."
"Never."
I turned and whistled to the constable, who had already noticed us in heated discussion.
The officer approached, but von Rausch, finding himself in a corner, quickly produced an envelope containing the tracing and handed it to me, urging:
"Remain silent, Nye. Say nothing. You have promised."
I broke open the envelope, and after satisfying myself he had not deceived me, I placed it safely in my breast-pocket, as further evidence of the work of the Kaiser"s spies amongst us.
Then, with excuses to the constable, I swung the car into the yard of the White Horse Hotel, where the spy descended, and with a fierce imprecation in German he hurried out, and I saw him no more.
At midnight I was in Ray"s chambers, in Bruton Street, and we rang up Mr. Henry Seymour, who had, we found, returned to his house in Curzon Street from Edgcott only a couple of hours before.
In ignorance that spies had obtained the secret of the _Neptune_ or improved _Dreadnought_, he would not at first believe the story we told him.
But when in his own library half an hour later we handed him back the tracing, he was compelled to admit the existence of German espionage in England, though in the House of Commons only a week before he had scorned the very idea.
CHAPTER VIII
THE GERMAN PLOT AGAINST ENGLAND
"When last I had the pleasure of meeting mademoiselle, both her nationality and her name were--well--slightly different, eh?" I remarked, bending forward with a smile.