"Well, you ought to know the English; you’ve lived among them. How they got their empire I can’t understand.... Then we shall be leaving here soon? It’s quite time." "What do you mean?" "It may be all right, but thinking it over I can’t help feeling a little suspicious. The beer delivered to-day was brought by two clerks. They said the draymen had been called up, and they were doing duty in their place. It didn’t occur to me till they were driving off that the clerks, well-set-up young fellows, were likely to have been called up before the draymen. The man who usually comes is a big fat fellow who couldn’t march a mile without collapsing. But nothing has happened, so I suppose I was suspicious for nothing." "They didn’t come into the house?" "No; the fellow who brought the cask into the lobby didn’t seem at all curious. Ah!" He was interrupted by the ticking of an instrument on a table at the far end of the room. There was silence for a moment as he read the message. "The bridge is to be blown up," said the man, returning. "At last!" "Give me a few minutes to finish my meal," said Hellwig. "I’ve had nothing to eat for twelve hours. A quarter of an hour, say; that won’t make any difference. I wish your cook would hurry up." Kenneth turned to go back, anticipating a possible visit to the kitchen. At the same moment the kitchen door opened, and an old woman bearing a tray came into the passage. The light from the lamp behind her fell on an unfamiliar figure at the door of the dining-room--a bootless man with a revolver in his hand. The woman screamed; the tray fell from her hand, and a pool of soup spread over the floor. There was an outcry in the dining-room; the man nearest the door flung it fully open, to find the muzzle of a revolver within a few inches of his head. In the moment allowed him for thought, Kenneth had realised that he could not escape if he dashed past the old woman with armed men at his back. With an inward tremor he made up his mind to the bold course. "Hands up!" he cried, as the startled man recoiled. The German instantly flung up his hands. But his companions realised the position. One of them sprang across the room to an electric push in the wall. Another, covered by the man who had flinched, whipped out his revolver, and took a snapshot at Kenneth. But a slight movement of the man between them brought him in the line of fire, and he fell with a bullet through his head.