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question, and it struck him as significant. He frowned in deep perplexity, as he glanced from the wrinkled face of the Secret Service agent to the astonished countenance of the Chief of the Royal Air Force.
    ‘What are you talking about?’ demanded the latter after a short pause. ‘I seldom go to the Ministry at night, and I most certainly did not spend two hours there ten nights ago.’
    ‘Yet the night watchman and certain members of his staff are convinced that they saw you; just as the night staff of the War Office are convinced that General Warrington spent some time in his room on the same night or a night contiguous.’
    The Air-Marshal turned to the soldier.
    ‘What does it all mean, Warrington?’ he asked irritably. ‘Either this man is demented, or my night watchmen are. I have not been at the Air Ministry as late as that since my appointment.’
    The General shrugged his shoulders in rather a helpless manner.
    ‘I also,’ he asserted, ‘have had no occasion to go to my office late at night for some considerable time; yet, according to Mr Cousins here, the night staff of the War Office definitely state that I was there on or about the same night as you are supposed to have gone to the Air Ministry. It is very puzzling.’
    ‘It is ridiculous,’ snapped the other. ‘What do you expect to discover by manufacturing cock-and-bull stories of this nature?’ he demanded, glowering at Cousins.
    The latter was not discomposed by his manner. In fact he seemed to be quite amused.
    ‘“How now, thou core of envy! Thou crusty batch of nature,”’ he murmured softly.
    ‘What’s that? What’s that?’
    ‘Merely a quotation, sir. I assure you,’ he went on, ‘that I am not manufacturing cock-and-bull stories. I have merely repeated what I have been told, and I am convinced that neither the head watchman of the War Office, nor his contemporary of the Air Ministry were suffering from hallucinations on the night or nights in question.’
    ‘Are you giving me the lie, sir?’ stormed the Air-Marshal.
    General Warrington drew himself up, frowning ominously.
    ‘I do not disbelieve either of you gentlemen,’ Cousins assured them.
    ‘But, damn it all, man,’ remonstrated the General sharply, ‘you have just said—’
    ‘Just a minute, sir,’ interrupted Cousins patiently, ‘I know what I have said, and I have no reason whatever for doubting the information given me, either by you or by the watchmen—’
    ‘But you can’t believe both sides of the story. They’re contradictory.’
    ‘Yet I do. You see, General, there is no doubt whatever in my mind now that, on the night or nights in question, you and the Air-Marshal were impersonated.’
    ‘What!’ cried the airman.
    ‘Good Gad!’ exclaimed the soldier.
    ‘That is how the copies of the plans were obtained. On each occasion the man who impersonated you both was accompanied by a fellow disguised as a staff officer. Naturally no suspicion was aroused, and the two quietly went to your rooms, removed the plans from your safes, and copied or photographed them.’
    ‘Rubbish, utter rubbish!’ sneered the Air-Marshal. ‘You have let your imagination run riot. I have all along contended that the offer of copies of the plans to foreign powers was a scare or a hoax, nothing more. Even if some enterprising criminal and a companion had made themselves up to resemble me and one of the members of my staff, they could not have taken the plans from the safe in which they are stored. The combination is altered frequently, and the safe is burglar-proof.’
    Cousins’ smile suggested the tolerant indulgence of a grown-up person dealing with an argumentative child.
    ‘I have seen both your safe and the safe in General Warrington’s room at the War Office, sir, and I beg leave to differ from you. Neither of them are really burglar-proof. An expert would open them without a great deal of difficulty. The supposed staff officer in each case was, I am convinced, a