‘It means,’ Blenkiron continued solemnly, ’that Ivery thinks the game’s nearly over.  The play’s working up for the big climax . . .  And that climax is going to be damnation for the Allies, unless we get a move on.’

‘Right,’ I said.  ‘That’s what I’m here for.  What’s the move?’

’The Wild Birds mustn’t ever go home, and the man they call Ivery or Bommaerts or Chelius has to decease.  It’s a cold-blooded proposition, but it’s him or the world that’s got to break.  But before he quits this earth we’re bound to get wise about some of his plans, and that means that we can’t just shoot a pistol at his face.  Also we’ve got to find him first.  We reckon he’s in Switzerland, but that is a state with quite a lot of diversified scenery to lose a man in . . .  Still I guess we’ll find him.  But it’s the kind of business to plan out as carefully as a battle.  I’m going back to Berne on my old stunt to boss the show, and I’m giving the orders.  You’re an obedient child, Dick, so I don’t reckon on any trouble that way.’

Then Blenkiron did an ominous thing.  He pulled up a little table and started to lay out Patience cards.  Since his duodenum was cured he seemed to have dropped that habit, and from his resuming it I gathered that his mind was uneasy.  I can see that scene as if it were yesterday—­the French colonel in an armchair smoking a cigarette in a long amber holder, and Blenkiron sitting primly on the edge of a yellow silk ottoman, dealing his cards and looking guiltily towards me.

‘You’ll have Peter for company,’ he said.  ’Peter’s a sad man, but he has a great heart, and he’s been mighty useful to me already.  They’re going to move him to England very soon.  The authorities are afraid of him, for he’s apt to talk wild, his health having made him peevish about the British.  But there’s a deal of red-tape in the world, and the orders for his repatriation are slow in coming.’  The speaker winked very slowly and deliberately with his left eye.

I asked if I was to be with Peter, much cheered at the prospect.

’Why, yes.  You and Peter are the collateral in the deal.  But the big game’s not with you.’

I had a presentiment of something coming, something anxious and unpleasant.

‘Is Mary in it?’ I asked.

He nodded and seemed to pull himself together for an explanation.

’See here, Dick.  Our main job is to get Ivery back to Allied soil where we can handle him.  And there’s just the one magnet that can fetch him back.  You aren’t going to deny that.’

I felt my face getting very red, and that ugly hammer began beating in my forehead.  Two grave, patient eyes met my glare.

‘I’m damned if I’ll allow it!’ I cried.  ’I’ve some right to a say in the thing.  I won’t have Mary made a decoy.  It’s too infernally degrading.’