“It was simply rotten luck,” Granet muttered.

“I come here to a few more notes,” Thomson proceeded.  “I meet you some weeks ago at a luncheon party at the Ritz.  A Belgian waiter, who I learned, by later inquiries was present as a prisoner in the village where you were being entertained as a guest at the German headquarters, recognised you and was on the point of making a disclosure.  The excitement, however, was too much for him and he fainted.  He was at once removed, under your auspices, and died a few days later, at one of your uncle’s country houses, before he could make any statement.”

“This is ridiculous!” Granet exclaimed.  “I never saw the fellow before in my life.”

“Ridiculous, doubtless, but a coincidence,” Major Thomson replied, turning over the next page of his book.  “A little later I find you taking an immense interest in our new destroyers, trying, in fact, to induce young Conyers to explain our wire netting system, following him down to Portsmouth and doing your best to discover also the meaning of a new device attached to his destroyer.”

“That is simply absurd,” Granet protested.  “I was interested in the subject, as any military officer would be in an important naval development.  My journey to Portsmouth was simply an act of courtesy to Miss Conyers and her cousin.”

“I find you next,” Thomson went on immovably, “visiting the one French statesmen whom we in England had cause to fear, in his hotel in London.  I find that very soon afterwards that statesman is in possession of an autograph letter from the Kaiser, offering peace to the French people on extraordinary terms.  Who was the intermediary who brought that document, Captain Granet?”

Granet’s face never twitched.  He held himself with cold composure.

“These,” he declared, “are fairy tales.  Pailleton was a friend of mine.  During my visit we did not speak of politics.”

“More coincidences,” Major Thomson remarked.  “We pass on, then, to that night at Market Burnham Hall, when a Zeppelin was guided to the spot where Sir Meyville Worth was experimenting on behalf of the British Government, and dropped destructive bombs.  A man was shot dead by the side of the flare.  That man was one of your companions at the Dormy House Club.”

“I neither spoke to him nor saw him there, except as a casual visitor,” Granet insisted.

“That I venture to doubt,” Major Thomson replied.  “At any rate, there is enough circumstantial evidence against you in this book to warrant my taking the keenest interest in your future.  As a matter of fact, you would have been at the Tower, or underneath it, at this very moment, but for the young lady who probably perjured herself to save you.  Now that you know my opinion of you, Captain Granet, you will understand that I should hesitate before recommending you to any post whatever in the service of this country.”

Granet made a stealthy movement forward.  He had been edging a little closer to the desk and he was barely two yards away.  He suddenly paused.  Thomson had closed the drawer now and he was holding a small revolver very steadily in his right hand.