“ John made a mental note that in Cherriton he had an adversary of no mean order.
"I hope," said he, "now that Captain Cherriton has discovered my story to be true, he won't suspect me again."
"As for that," responded the lady, "he suspects his own shadow. But you are very high in favour just at the moment."
"His favour is worth having?" probed John.
"We shall discover that," said Mrs. Beecher Monmouth. Her tone suddenly became fervent, almost exalted. "After the war there will be great things for us all. Now is the time to sow; then will be the time to reap the harvest!" ”

“ In the past, before my time and yours," went on the Colonel, suddenly violent again, "there have been Treves who have been fools and spendthrifts; there may have been Treves who kept their honour none too clean—but never in our long line has there been a coward until you came, until you grew up to be a curse to my existence, and made my life a shame to me!" His lip trembled, the old, proud head was held aloft, but a world of desolation dwelt in the faded eyes. On a sudden impulse, John gripped him by the hand; he could feel the old man resisting him, seeking to free himself. ”

“ Husband and wife were standing together as the maid conducted John downstairs.
"What a monument of treachery and deceit she is," thought John, as he stepped out into the starlit night.
In the meantime Mrs. Beecher Monmouth had pressed her ungainly husband into a deep arm-chair, had commanded that whisky and soda should be brought, and was already holding the match that lit his cigar. Beecher Monmouth watched her with admiration in his tired eyes. He was prepared to sell his soul for her, and was never weary of telling her that he was the luckiest man in the world to have won her love. ”

“ Sir Robert's voice smote John's ears.
Manton knew that if he held his peace and the law moved with its inexorable swiftness, he would by to-morrow have expiated the crime of another man. He was in another man's shoes. Innocently, he had taken up that other man's identity.
But he had not shouldered everything, he had not rendered himself liable for that other man's treachery. And yet, at the back of his mind, there was pity, even for Treves. He thought of the man's weakness, of his shattered nerves, of Manners's obvious power over him. ”

“ He was fond of the old soldier, and in deceiving him was merely carrying out his chosen part. He was playing a dangerous game in his country's interests. And the first man to applaud his actions would have been the fine old soldier, whose own son had proved so utter a disappointment. Therefore John felt no compunction in the deception.
He knew that infinite caution was required of him, and that the shrewd eyes of Captain Cherriton were always upon him. He knew that at any moment "Voules," or Cherriton or Mrs. Beecher Monmouth might stumble upon the knowledge of his true identity. ”

“ Mrs. Beecher Monmouth had turned her face to the window. For an instant John saw it, tense and ecstatic in the glare of light—then darkness fell again.
And suddenly Mrs. Beecher Monmouth stood away in the dark room. The passionate sibilance of her whisper smote John's ears, like that of a snake.
"At last! At last! ... Oh, you can go now, Billy, Mr. Parkson. Yes—go, or stay! It matters not!" ”

“ His eyes were still upon John. He liked the young man's frank expression, his cheerful and easy manners and the bold poise of his head.
"A good-looking, heftily-built youngster," thought he. "I only hope he is as shrewd as he looks active."
"Now, I suppose," he said aloud, "you want me to tell you all the trouble?"
"I should like to hear of anything, sir, that has aroused your suspicions," said John.
"That's a tall order," answered Hobin. "Everything has aroused my suspicions, and yet, if I put it into words, it may look like nothing to you. ”

“ But one thing he knew—the long, hidden contest between Voules and Dacent Smith would reach its culmination. Each man, with his pawns, had manoeuvred, moved, finessed and counter-moved. The subtlety of Dacent Smith had been pitted against the precision and military skill of von Kuhne. What was to be the end? John did not know, and at that moment his mind was only secondarily occupied with the point; he was thinking, not of to-morrow, but of yesterday, of his interview with Elaine, of his abrupt separation from her, of his apparent brutality and harshness. ”

“ Voules looked at her and shook his ponderous head.
"No, no! Your position, gnädige Frau, is too secure for that; also you are too clever."
"I am not a fool," answered Mrs. Beecher Monmouth, "but these things disturb me!"
"Your love of the Fatherland, your belief in final victory, will sustain you. You lose your friend, Lady Rachel Marvin, but to a woman of your beauty and position nothing is impossible. You shall get other fools—is it not so? England, gnädige Frau, is full of fools!" ”

“ Kultur that takes a man sodden with drugs and turns him into a traitor to his country; then, having made him commit crimes against his fellow-countrymen, has the audacity to tell him that he is acting the part of a man of honour! Some day," thought John, a sudden blaze of fury burning through him, "you, Voules, will be taught a very different culture from that." Aloud John said nothing, but merely sat nervously in his chair, fidgeting with his collar, and clasping and unclasping his hands upon the table—an excellent imitation of the real Treves. ”

“ What if Elaine Treves suddenly discovered her mistake?
Somehow the teeming possibilities of the moment gave steadiness to John's nerves. He thought of a plan, and put it into execution on the instant.
"Elaine," he said—he used her name for the first time, and as he spoke he took her slender hand in his grasp—"I have business to discuss with Captain Cherriton and Mr. Manners."
"I promise we shall not keep your husband more than a few minutes," intervened Cherriton. "Yes, old Manwitz for once is right," he thought; "here is an Englishwoman possessed of beauty." ”

“ For a second John hesitated; he did not realise who Alice was; then he remembered her as Mrs. Beecher Monmouth.
"No," answered John, "I have not told her yet, but I intend to write and tell her to-night."
"Ah," said Voules, "you think she will be pleased?" The intensity of his gaze increased. John saw quite plainly a doubt in his eyes. "You think she will be pleased?"
"I am sure of it," said John.
"And why?"
"Because I can be of more use, doctor."
"We have a very high opinion of the lady in question," said Voules; "we have every reason to trust her." ”

“ The sinking of the Polidor through the agency of Treves had been a black and irredeemable crime. A time was bound to come when the young man must answer for that piece of black treachery against his country. Looking at the matter in the most charitable light, John regarded Treves, as evidently Dacent Smith regarded him, that is, as a feeble, will-less creature, whose reason had been unseated, at any rate temporarily, by the drugs which were a mania with him.
The fact that Manwitz and Cherriton had plied him with these drugs showed only the bold unscrupulousness of the German methods. ”

“ General Whiston, who had been looking fixedly at John, now passed round the table and walked towards him. He was a tall, bronzed man, with a clipped moustache, and a wide, strong mouth. John had recognised his name in a moment. He was Colonel Treves's old friend.
"Bernard Treves," said General Whiston, "you have broken your father's heart already; you must now make your peace with God. There is only one thing left for me to do for my old and dear friend, and I intend to do it—he shall never learn that his son died as a traitor to his country. ”

“ Cherriton remarked, taking up his grey felt hat and denting it carefully with his hand, "I think we will not keep you from your wife any longer."
For the second time that day he gripped John's hand in his, and John, looking back into his cold blue eyes, felt the steady, penetrating power of Cherriton's gaze.
"Here was a man," thought John, "used to command—a man possessed of exceptional powers of mind and physique. You are a daring fellow," thought John; "a subtle and cunning worker of evil, but for once in your life you are mistaken. ”

“ Then, dropping into a low chair near the dressing-table, he read, one after another, Kurt von Morgen's amorous letters to his wife. And in reading he pieced together, bit by bit, his wife's dark past. For the first time her utter shamelessness became known to him. And then, gradually, through the tragedy of his own wrecked life, he saw something that filled him with horror. He learnt, bit by bit, that his wife was not only faithless to him, but was faithless to his country as well. The woman he had adored and had sold his happiness to was a traitor—either that, or a spy in the enemy's pay. ”

“ Mrs. Beecher Monmouth seated herself beside Parkson and admired the view. She was clever enough not to force the pace; he was already entangled in her meshes, but he was not yet completely helpless. Aforetime she had conquered and wrought the undoing of men far subtler than Parkson.
"What a lovely, lovely bay, Mr. Parkson!"
Parkson admitted the beauty of the bay. He told her that it was within the area of the fort, and that it was not accessible to the public, and that there was only one way of approaching it by a narrow path descending the chalk cliff. ”

“ Voules laughed for the first time. John noticed that his teeth were strong and well kept, and that his laugh was not at all pleasant.
"Our Englander," he said, "understands not one word of German. We may speak freely, Muller. Is it not so, Rathenau?" He turned quickly to Cherriton.
"Yes, Excellence," answered Cherriton, with his contemptuous curl of the lip. "Not one English officer in a thousand knows half a dozen words of German; our friend is no exception." ”

“ Beecher Monmouth's divan, the long gilt-framed mirrors, and gilt-legged chairs all conspired to create an atmosphere of sumptuous richness. Mrs. Beecher Monmouth in an afternoon gown which gave her almost a slender and distinguished appearance, was seated in a low arm-chair. Lady Rachel Marvin occupied the divan, and John, much as he disliked this foolish ox-eyed woman of fashion, was obliged to admit that she had disposed herself gracefully upon the cushions. ”

“ If he had occupied an English town in his true character as a German general in command, he would have put to death a hundred persons for not a tithe of the crime that John had committed against him. In sentencing John to death, in appointing Cherriton and Manwitz his executioners, he was carrying out what to him was a just, even a moderate law. He had been brought up to slaughter; he had been taught from boyhood to crush the Fatherland's enemies. To intimidate by frightfulness was the highest German ideal. He was a typical military German—that is, a typical cold-blooded murderer. ”

“ Beecher Monmouth possessed beauty, but she lacked utterly the frankness and generous natural trust, the appealing femininity, in fact, which is always potent in the winning of a man's love. For it was love, and love only that John felt for this girl who was Bernard Treves's wife, who was nothing to him, and could never be anything. ”

“ I am not your husband, I am not Bernard Treves—but John Manton? The man you believe me to be—your husband—is a drug-sodden and hysterical degenerate, a soldier who has been guilty of treachery to his country. ”

“ John released himself. He felt the extreme awkwardness of the situation.
"What made you afraid, Elaine?" He thought at first that an over-vivid imagination had been running away with her, that some feminine mood had made her fear for him. Then he remembered her beliefs as to his character. The man she believed him to be was a weakling with will undermined by drugs, a nervous, overstrung neurasthenic; capable of drifting into all sorts of trouble and embarrassments.
Elaine led him into the little parlour, lit the gas and drew down the blind. John noticed again that something troubled her mind. ”

“ He was leaning towards Manton now; his mouth twitched, but there was a blaze in the old grey eyes.
"I know it, sir," said John quietly.
The Colonel drew in his breath slowly and sat erect.
"Ah, you know. And, having escaped that punishment, and knowing yourself to be guilty, you skulk in hiding! You fail to seize the one chance that is open to you to redeem the past!"
"What is the chance?" inquired Manton, forgetting himself for a moment. ”

“ John bowed slightly towards Mr. Beecher Monmouth, whose evening clothes intensified the sallowness of his complexion. John noted the parchment-like character of his skin, the tired look in his eyes, and the manipulation of his thin hair to create the effect of youthful plenty. He was an old man striving hopelessly to look young. Mrs. Beecher Monmouth turned her eyes from her husband towards the slender figure of a woman at her right-hand side.
"Lady Rachel," she said, "may I present Mr. Treves." John bowed again, and Lady Rachel Marvin smiled at him graciously. ”

“ He was thinking of Manners, of Cherriton, and of the lady before him.
"What do you think will happen?" he inquired.
"They will come here, of course," she retorted, suddenly standing erect beside the divan and speaking with fiery and passionate intensity, "they will come here—my people!"
"Your people?" interjected John, quickly.
"My people," droned she, with a lift of her head. "You didn't know that before? But you are one of us, and I can trust you now."
"But everybody thinks you are an American," observed John, recalling what Dacent Smith had told him. ”

“ Presently, in the great crowd moving, laughing and talking near him, John observed a politician who at various periods in the past had loomed importantly in the public eye.
"He is even more ugly than his photographs," thought John, watching the important personage move among his friends. John did not like Beecher Monmouth's smile; altogether he disliked the man on the instant, and was the more astonished to notice that a strikingly beautiful woman of thirty, wearing a glittering diamond necklace and diamond ear-rings, moved towards him and slipped her arm through his. ”

“ Watson had seen a figure approaching from the road. The stranger wore mufti and a soft felt hat, and as he came stumbling and hurrying through the grass, leaping artillery flashes momentarily lifted him into view, and again plunged him into utter darkness.
Watson, with Nobby and two other men, had, under John's directions, kept a three-days' watch on Cherriton's cottage. At the present moment Cherriton himself was alone in the low, single-storied building which, from two workmen's dwellings, had been converted into an artistic residence. ”

“ Why, if I had chosen a wife for you myself, I couldn't have made as good a choice as you made in marrying Elaine. She's been here three days, Bernard, and already I feel towards her as to my own daughter. I always feared you would make a fool of yourself in marrying." He paused and looked at John with his dim eyes. "Sometimes, Bernard boy," he said, with a touch of wistfulness in his tone, "I cannot understand the change that has come over you, the improvement. But it's the good blood coming out, eh—the Treves blood. ”