delighted," declared Rodwell, in his charmingly affable manner. "I think the movement is a really excellent one. Without a doubt the question has become very serious indeed. There are Germans and German influence in our midst in quarters quite unexpected and undiscovered--high official quarters too. Can we, therefore, be surprised if things don't always go as they should?"

"Exactly," said the Admiralty official, as they both took seats together on a couch against the wall. "There's no doubt that the Germans, as part of their marvellous preparedness, made an audacious attempt to weave a network of vile treachery in our Government Departments and, above all, in the War Office and Admiralty. As an official I can tell you, in strictest confidence of course, that I have, several times of late, had my suspicions seriously aroused. Information leaks out. How--nobody--not even our Intelligence Department itself can discover."

"My dear sir," exclaimed Rodwell confidentially, "is it really to be wondered at when men of German birth and German descent are employed in nearly all the various departments in Whitehall? After all, are we not today fighting for our country's life and freedom? Certainly those who come after us would never forgive us--you and I--those who, if born into a Germanised world and held under the iron yoke of barbaric `Kultur,' looked back to our conduct of the war that sealed their fate and found that, besides supplying the enemy with war material--cotton and the like--we actually harboured Germans in our camp and gave them knowledge, power and position vital to the enemy's success. And I assert today, Mr Trustram, that we treat Germany as the `most-favoured nation,' even though the flower of our land are being sacrificed by thousands and thousands upon the fields of Flanders. Yes, it is an outrageous scandal--a disgrace to our nation. As I said in a speech at Liverpool last week, we are daily being misled, misguided, and lured to our destruction. And for that reason," the great man added--"for that reason I'm only too ready and anxious to help the Anti-Teuton Alliance in their splendid crusade against this canker-worm in England's heart."

Lady Betty, seated quite near, talking to a dowager-duchess, overheard him. He had purposely spoken loudly and emphatically, with that object.

"Good! Mr Rodwell," her ladyship cried. "Excellent! I am so delighted that you thoroughly approve of our efforts. We are trying to do our share, in this terrible crisis. You are such a busy man that I almost feared to ask you to help us."

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