“You did so well,” the Kaiser pronounced, “that my counsellors were unanimous in advising your withdrawal to what will shortly become the great centre of interest.  From the moment of receiving our commands you appear to have displayed initiative.  I gather that your personation of this English baronet has been successfully carried through?”

“Up to the present, your Majesty.”

“Important though your work in Africa was,” the Kaiser continued, “your present task is a far greater one.  I wish to speak to you for these few minutes without reserve.  First, though, drink a toast with me.”

From a mahogany stand at his elbow, the Kaiser drew out a long-necked bottle of Moselle, filled two very beautiful glasses, passed one to his companion and raised the other.

“To the Fatherland!” he said.

“To the Fatherland!” Dominey repeated.

They set down their glasses, empty.  The Kaiser threw back the grey military cloak which he was wearing, displaying a long row of medals and decorations.  His fingers still toyed with the stem of his wineglass.  He seemed for a moment to lose himself in thought.  His hard and somewhat cruel mouth was tightly closed; there was a slight frown upon his forehead.  He was sitting upright, taking no advantage of the cushioned back of his easy-chair, his eyes a little screwed up, the frown deepening.  For quite five minutes there was complete silence.  One might have gathered that, turning aside from great matters, he had been devoting himself entirely to the scheme in which Dominey was concerned.

“Von Ragastein,” he said at last, “I have sent for you to have a few words concerning your habitation in England.  I wish you to receive your impressions of your mission from my own lips.”

“Your Majesty does me great honour,” Dominey murmured.

“I wish you to consider yourself,” the Kaiser continued, “as entirely removed from the limits, the authority and the duties of my espionage system.  From you I look for other things.  I desire you to enter into the spirit of your assumed position.  As a typical English country gentleman I desire you to study the labour question, the Irish question, the progress of this National Service scheme, and other social movements of which you will receive notice in due time.  I desire a list compiled of those writers who, in the Reviews, or by means of fiction, are encouraging the suspicions which I am inclined to fancy England has begun to entertain towards the Fatherland.  These things are all on the fringe of your real mission.  That, I believe, our admirable friend Seaman has already confided to you.  It is to seek the friendship, if possible the intimacy, of Prince Terniloff.”

The Kaiser paused, and once more his eyes wandered to the landscape which rolled away from the plate-glass windows of the car.  They were certainly not the eyes of a dreamer, and yet in those moments they seemed filled with brooding pictures.