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“MR. HOFFMAN,” said the man across the table, “you are expected to carry out whatever instructions may be given you, to the letter. Are you ready to do so?”

Bob Hoffman hesitated for the fraction of a second, then nodded.

“I am ready,” he replied. “What are the instructions?”

“You will communicate, at once, without the least delay, any military information of which you may become possessed, to the German secret service authorities.” The speaker bent upon the man before him a pair of intensely brilliant grey eyes.

He was a short, thickset man, somewhat bald, with a closely cropped grey moustache that accentuated, rather than hid, the firm, determined lines of his mouth and chin. He spoke slowly, deliberately, as one possessing authority, regarding the young man opposite him with grave imperturbability.

The latter, tall, slender, yet of muscular build, met his companion's gaze without betraying the least emotion. He was a handsome man, clean-shaven, with an indefinable something about his lean square jaws that suggested the American.

“In what way am I to obtain the military information of which you speak!” he presently asked.

“I will tell you. You are, I believe, well acquainted with Vice Admiral Lord Brooke, of the Admiralty Naval Staff?”

“Lord Brooke!” This time the young man was shaken out of his composure. “Of course I am. He is my brother-in-law. He married my sister.”

“Precisely. And you are a frequent visitor at his house!”

“I am.”

“Very well. Lord Brooke is given to talking, at times. He will be indiscreet. He will occasionally let fall information of the greatest value. That information you will make use of, as I have indicated.”

“But—my own brother-in-law!” Hoffman exclaimed, with troubled eyes.

“I should perhaps have informed you,” remarked his companion, “that it is because of your relationship to Lord Brooke that you have been selected for the work in hand.”

The young man mastered his hesitation with an effort.

“How am I to convey the secrets of which you speak to the German authorities?” he asked.

His companion shrugged his shoulders.

“That information will be furnished you by those you will meet upon the Continent.”

“Upon the Continent?” Hoffman asked, surprised.

“Yes. You will proceed to Rotterdam in the morning, and call upon the German consul there. Explain to him just what you propose to do. He will instruct you as to your future movements.”

“I see.” The young American tossed his half-smoked cigarette into the fireplace, and rose. He seemed uneasy, uncertain of his ground.

“To take advantage of Lord Brooke's friendship, of his relationship to me,” he remarked, coldly, “Will be rather a shabby trick.”

“Please remember,” replied his companion quickly, “ that you have sworn to carry out your orders, Without questioning them. Vast interests are at stake. Everything depends upon your obedience, your devotion. I realize that the part you are called upon to play is distasteful to you. It would be distasteful to any man of honor. But the interests involved are too great, too important, to admit of any hesitation. You must remember your oath, and obey blindly. Do you understand?” In the gravity with which the older man invested his words there was a note almost of menace.

“Further,” he continued, “I feel that I should point out to you that the smallest error on your part is almost certain to cost you your life. Treachery we will never forgive—mistakes will be no less promptly punished by our enemies. Do I make myself clear?”

Hoffman nodded gravely, with a sudden realization of the dangers of the course upon which his blind love of adventure had embarked him. The information just imparted to him had been so startling, so unexpected, that his brain whirled.

“Before you go,” his companion remarked, “you will give me your thumb-prints.” He took a small inked pad and some paper from one of the drawers of the table and pushed them toward Hoffman. “It is a necessary precaution, and may prove valuable to you, in case you have occasion to communicate with us at this end. Sign any such communications with the impression of your right thumb, but write nothing unless absolutely necessary. In work of this sort, verbal messages are the only safe ones.” He folded the sheet upon which Hoffman had left the print of his thumbs, and placed it in his pocket. “Do not forget that, in England, you will be known, not by name, but by the number 424. Fix this number carefully in your mind. In the mission upon which you are embarking, there can be no mistakes, no failures. Your wits must be keen, your nerves of steel. For the rest, obey your instructions implicitly, and without question. I think that is all.” Ho rose, and went toward the door. “ Permit me to wish you good-day.”

Hoffman left the room, his brain in a tumult. During the six weeks he had spent in London, he had grumbled unceasingly, because nothing had happened. Now, at the beginning of the seventh he felt that he had small reason to complain on that score.

Six weeks before, he had arrived in England, with a firm determination to proceed at once to the front, and from there write a series of articles about the war for one of the magazines, which articles, by reason of their brilliancy, their truth, would make him famous. And instead of going to the front, he had been obliged to sit idly about London, fuming and fussing, because his requests to the war office for permission to visit the trenches had been met with polite but none the less definite refusals.

He had supposed that, coming to London as the brother-in-law of Lord Brooke, he would at once be permitted to proceed to the firing-line, but he found himself as far removed from the goal of his literary ambitions, now that he was in the English capital, as he had been in New York. The guns, the men, the fighting, along the Yser, the Aisne, seemed, if anything, even more remote, now that he was a scant hundred miles away from them, than they had seemed when separated from him by the full width of the Atlantic. England, it appeared, had no use for the free-lance correspondent. Lord Kitchener wanted no literary deadwood in the trenches, no leaks, however innocent they might appear, through which news of Britain’s vast preparations might reach the enemy. As a result, Hoffman had been reduced to such uninspiring pursuits as reading the bulletin boards, and drinking tea with the Brookes, two occupations very far removed from the great purpose which had brought him across the ocean. He longed to go to France, to Germany, to see actual fighting, to witness at first hand the terrific cataclysm that was rocking the foundations of the world. For six weeks nothing whatever had occurred, and then had begun the remarkable series of incidents which had culminated in the interview through which he had just passed.

That very morning, he had been approached, in the lobby of his hotel, by a blond young man, whom he had met occasionally about the corridors, and to whom he had from time to time complained, concerning his inability to overcome the objections of the war oiiice to correspondents at the front. The man, who claimed to be an American, exhaled a decidedly foreign atmosphere, in spite of his Anglo-Saxon name of Sedgwick. He came up, proposed a drink, and a little later suggested that Hoffman and he have luncheon together.

The latter, in a state of desperation, had consented. He was always ready to air his grievances, and had found Sedgwick a ready listener.

During the course of the meal, Sedgwick had exhibited a most amazing knowledge of his companion’s personal affairs, of his hopes, his feelings regarding the war, the state of his nuances, his friends both in England and in America, almost of his very thoughts. Then, when Hoffman’s astonishment was at its height, he had suddenly announced that if the latter really wanted to go to the war zone, the matter might possibly be arranged.

“There is one way in which it might be accomplished,” he had said, at length. “It is an opportunity that would not occur again in a lifetime.”

“I'll take it,” Hoiman laughed, without regarding the matter very seriously. “Anything to get out of my present situation and see some actual fighting. I’ve almost decided to enlist—on either side, if it would result in my running this war to earth.”

“The opportunity of which I speak,” Sedgwick replied gravely, “is far from being a joke. On the contrary, it is likely to involve the greatest danger. Death would never be very far from your elbow.”

“What of that? It is a chance any man must take. Plenty of Americans have already been killed, even in the Red Cross work. I’d take my chances quick enough. What would I have to do?”

“I cannot tell you exactly. Someone else will have to do that. But this much I will say. Certain interests in this country find it necessary to send information, of a peculiar sort, to persons in Germany. These interests have investigated your affairs thoroughly, and they realize that there are reasons why you are peculiarly fitted for the work in hand. You are a neutral, a writer. You could pass back and forth, without exciting suspicion. You have courage, intelligence, a certain standing, passports, credentials of various sorts—in fact, you occupy an ideal position for undertaking the work. We believe you to be a man who would carry out his orders blindly, implicitly, without regard for the consequences; realizing that those consequences are in the hands of others, playing a game you could not understand. I regret that I cannot speak more frankly. Signify your willingness to accept my offer, and the matter will be explained to you in greater detail.”

“Do you Wish me to obtain information, to act, in other words, as a spy?” Hoffman asked, flushing.

The man shook his head.

“Not that, exactly. Rather to give information, than to obtain it. But I cannot go further into the matter, without violating my instructions. All I can say is, that an opportunity is offered you to render certain interests a great service. You can take advantage of this opportunity or not, as you please. We do not urge it upon you. But I must have your answer at once.”

“If what I am to do involves nothing dishonorable,” Hoffman replied, fearful lest this chance to reach the front might be snatched from him, “I will go.”

“Very well. Suppose we see my superior at once. If you find anything in the undertaking that violates your sense of what is honorable, I advise you not to attempt it. You alone must be the judge.”

An hour later, Hoffman was closeted with the grey-eyed man whose instructions he was now about to follow. The task this gentleman had outlined to him had been so bold, so amazing in its ramifications, that he listened to it in astonished silence. Only after he had given his consent, and sworn himself to absolute secrecy, did he realize the nature of the service in which he was now enrolled. The prospect of what was to come alternately pleased and terrified him. He returned to his hotel, not quite sure, as yet, whether he was in reality fully awake.

On his arrival, a letter was handed to him. He recognized Lady Brooke’s crest, upon the seal. His sister suggested, quite informally, that he drop in that afternoon for tea.