‘Right,’ I said.  ’I’m jolly glad I’m to start work again.  I’m getting fat from lack of exercise.  I suppose you want me to catch Gresson out in some piece of blackguardism and have him and Ivery snugly put away.’

‘I don’t want anything of the kind,’ he said very slowly and distinctly.  ’You’ve got to attend very close to your instructions, I cherish these two beauties as if they were my own white-headed boys.  I wouldn’t for the world interfere with their comfort and liberty.  I want them to go on corresponding with their friends.  I want to give them every facility.’

He burst out laughing at my mystified face.

’See here, Dick.  How do we want to treat the Boche?  Why, to fill him up with all the cunningest lies and get him to act on them.  Now here is Moxon Ivery, who has always given them good information.  They trust him absolutely, and we would be fools to spoil their confidence.  Only, if we can find out Moxon’s methods, we can arrange to use them ourselves and send noos in his name which isn’t quite so genooine.  Every word he dispatches goes straight to the Grand High Secret General Staff, and old Hindenburg and Ludendorff put towels round their heads and cipher it out.  We want to encourage them to go on doing it.  We’ll arrange to send true stuff that don’t matter, so as they’ll continue to trust him, and a few selected falsehoods that’ll matter like hell.  It’s a game you can’t play for ever, but with luck I propose to play it long enough to confuse Fritz’s little plans.’

His face became serious and wore the air that our corps commander used to have at the big pow-wow before a push.

’I’m not going to give you instructions, for you’re man enough to make your own.  But I can give you the general hang of the situation.  You tell Ivery you’re going North to inquire into industrial disputes at first hand.  That will seem to him natural and in line with your recent behaviour.  He’ll tell his people that you’re a guileless colonial who feels disgruntled with Britain, and may come in useful.  You’ll go to a man of mine in Glasgow, a red-hot agitator who chooses that way of doing his bit for his country.  It’s a darned hard way and darned dangerous.  Through him you’ll get in touch with Gresson, and you’ll keep alongside that bright citizen.  Find out what he is doing, and get a chance of following him.  He must never suspect you, and for that purpose you must be very near the edge of the law yourself.  You go up there as an unabashed pacifist and you’ll live with folk that will turn your stomach.  Maybe you’ll have to break some of these two-cent rules the British Government have invented to defend the realm, and it’s up to you not to get caught out . . .  Remember, you’ll get no help from me.  You’ve got to wise up about Gresson with the whole forces of the British State arrayed officially against you.  I guess it’s a steep proposition, but you’re man enough to make good.’