A ROGUE BY COMPULSION An Affair of the Secret Service By VICTOR BRIDGES With Frontispiece By JOHN H. CASSEL 1915 [Illustration: "A CURTAIN AT THE END OF THE ROOM WAS DRAWN SLOWLY ASIDE, AND THERE, STANDING IN THE GAP, I SAW THE SLIM FIGURE OF A GIRL." Chapter X. Drawn by John H. Cassel.] TO THAT BEST OF FRIENDS HUGHES MASSIE CONTENTS CHAPTER I. A BOLT FOR FREEDOM II. A BICYCLE AND SOME OVERALLS III. A DUBIOUS REFUGE IV. ECHOES OF A FAMOUS CASE V. AN OFFER WITHOUT AN ALTERNATIVE VI. THE FACE OF A STRANGER VII. A KISS AND A CONFESSION VIII. RT. HON. SIR GEORGE FRINTON, P.C. IX. THE MAN WITH THE SCAR X. MADEMOISELLE VIVIEN, PALMIST XI. BRIDGING THREE YEARS OF SEPARATION XII. A SCRIBBLED WARNING XIII. REGARDING MR. BRUCE LATIMER XIV. A SUMMONS FROM DR. McMURTRIE XV. A HUMAN "CATCH" XVI. CONFRONTING THE INTRUDER XVII. THE WORKSHOP ON THE MARSHES XVIII. A NEW CLUE TO AN OLD CRIME XIX. LAUNCHING A NEW INVENTION XX. APPROACHING A SOLUTION XXI. SONIA'S SUDDEN VISIT XXII. THE POLICE TAKE ACTION XXIII. IN THE NICK OF TIME XXIV. EXONERATED XXV. A LITTLE FAMILY PARTY CHAPTER I A BOLT FOR FREEDOM Most of the really important things in life--such as love and death--happen unexpectedly. I know that my escape from Dartmoor did. We had just left the quarries--eighteen of us, all dressed in that depressing costume which King George provides for his less elusive subjects--and we were shambling sullenly back along the gloomy road which leads through the plantation to the prison. The time was about four o'clock on a dull March afternoon. In the roadway, on either side of us, tramped an armed warder, his carbine in his hand, his eyes travelling with dull suspicion up and down the gang. Fifteen yards away, parallel with our route, the sombre figure of one of the civil guards kept pace with us through the trees. We were a cheery party! Suddenly, without any warning, one of the warders turned faint. He dropped his carbine, and putting his hand to his head, stumbled heavily against the low wall that separated us from the wood. The clatter of his weapon, falling in the road, naturally brought all eyes round in that direction, and seeing what had happened the whole eighteen of us instinctively halted. The gruff voice of the other warder broke out at once, above the shuffling of feet: "What are you stopping for? Get on there in front." From the corner of my eye I caught sight of the civil guard hurrying towards the prostrate figure by the wall; and then, just as the whole gang lurched forward again, the thing happened with beautiful abruptness.