The amazing ramifications of the German spy system in England are, unfortunately, not even to-day fully realised by the British public, or admitted by the Government. In face of the hard facts contained in this book, in face of the serious statements of Members in the House of Commons, and in face of what the public are themselves daily reporting to the "authorities," the present apathy of the Government, and its refusal to admit the peril and deal with spies with a firm hand, is little short of criminal.

You will recollect our first meeting on that sunny afternoon when, in the stuffy, nauseating atmosphere of perspiration and a hundred Parisian perfumes, we sat next each other at the first roulette table on the right as you enter the rooms at Monte Carlo? Ah how vivid it is still before my eyes, the jingle of gold and the monotonous cries of the croupiers.

"Curious affair, isn't it?" "Very." "Now, you're a bit of a mystery-monger, Vidal. What's your theory-eh?" "I haven't one," I replied with a smile. "I knew the old boy quite well by sight. Didn't you?" asked my friend, Major Keppell, as we stood gossiping together in the doorway of the Hotel de Paris, high up on the cliff opposite the pier at Cromer."

These strange facts would never have been placed on record, nor would this exciting chapter of an eventful life have been written, except for two reasons: first, because the discovery I made has been declared to be of considerable importance to scientists, bibliophiles, and the world at large; and, secondly, because it is my dear wife's wish that in order to clear her in the eyes of both friends and foes nothing should be concealed, misrepresented, or withheld.

"There was a mysterious affair last night, signore." "Oh " I exclaimed. "Anything that interests us?" "Yes, signore," replied the tall, thin Italian Consular-clerk, speaking with a strong accent. "An English steam yacht ran aground on the Meloria about ten miles out, and was discovered by a fishing-boat who brought the news to harbor. The Admiral sent out two torpedo-boats, which managed after a lot of difficulty to bring in the yacht safely, but the Captain of the Port has a suspicion that the crew were trying to make away with the vessel."

"Yes I'm not mistaken at all It's the same woman " whispered the tall, good-looking young Englishman in a well-cut navy suit as he stood with his friend, a man some ten years older than himself, at one of the roulette tables at Monte Carlo, the first on the right on entering the room-that one known to habitual gamblers as "The Suicide's Table." "Are you quite certain?" asked his friend.

"Do get rid of the girl Can't you see that she's highly dangerous " whispered the tall, rather overdressed man as he glanced furtively across the small square shop set with little tables, dingy in the haze of tobacco-smoke. It was an obscure, old-fashioned little restaurant in one of London's numerous byways-a resort of Germans, naturalised and otherwise, "the enemy in our midst," as the papers called them.

"Then it's an entire mystery?" "Yes, Phrida." "But it's astounding It really seems so utterly impossible," declared my well-beloved, amazed at what I had just related. "I've simply stated hard facts." "But there's been nothing about this affair in the papers." "For certain reasons the authorities are not exactly anxious for any publicity. It is a very puzzling problem, and they do not care to own themselves baffled," I replied.

"There's some mystery about that girl-I'm certain of it." "What makes you suspect that?" "Well, first, she's evidently a lady-the daughter of a man who has come down in the world most probably: and secondly-" "Ah You mean the secret lover-the man who was here yesterday and bought a twenty-guinea evening gown of her to send to his sister-eh?" exclaimed Mr Warner, "buyer" of the costume department of the great drapery house of Cunnington's, in Oxford Street, that huge store which, as everybody knows, competes with Whiteley's and Harrod's for the premier place of the middle-class trade in...

"Why Look he's dead, doctor " I gasped, standing aghast. The sudden change in the thin sallow face, the lack of expression in the brilliant eyes, and the dropping of the jaw were sufficient to convince me that the stranger's life had ebbed away. The doctor bent, placed his hand upon the prostrate man's breast for a moment, and then, straightening himself, he turned to me and answered gravely: - "Yes, Godfrey; it is as I feared from the first. Nothing could save him. Remember what I told you this morning-it was simply a matter of hours."