For a moment she hesitated; then with a rather scornful little laugh she shrugged her shoulders. "I told them it was unnecessary!" she said. I crushed down the exclamation that nearly rose to my lips. So the man with the scar _was_ one of McMurtrie's emissaries, after all, and his dealings with Mr. Bruce Latimer most certainly did concern me. The feeling that I was entangled in some unknown network of evil and mystery came back to me with redoubled force. "I hope the report was satisfactory," I said lightly. Sonia nodded. "They only wanted to make certain that you had gone to Edith Terrace. I don't think you were followed after the first night." "No," I said, "I don't think I was." Precisely how much the boot had been on the opposite foot it seemed unnecessary to add. Sonia walked to the table and again opened her bag. "I mustn't stay any longer--now," she said. "I have to meet the car at six o'clock. Here are the keys." She took them out and came across to where I was standing. "Good-bye, Sonia," I said, taking her hands in mine. "No, no," she whispered; "don't say that: I hate the word. Listen, Neil. I am coming to you again, down there, when we shall be alone--you and I together. I don't know when it will be, but soon--ah, just as soon as I can. I can't help you, not in the way I mean to, until you have finished your work, but I will come to you, and--and...." Her voice failed, and lowering her head she buried her face in my coat. I bent down, and in a moment her lips met mine in another long, passionate kiss. It was hard to see how I could have acted otherwise, but all the same I didn't feel exactly proud of myself. Indeed, it was in a state of very mixed emotions that I came back into the house after we had walked together as far as the corner of the street. The mere fact of my having found out for certain that the man with the scar was an agent of McMurtrie's was enough in itself to give me food for pretty considerable thought. Any suspicions I may have had as to the genuineness of the doctor's story were now amply confirmed. I was not intimately acquainted with the working methods of the High Explosives Trade, but it seemed highly improbable that they could involve the drugging or poisoning of Government officials in public restaurants. As Tommy had forcibly expressed it, there was some "damned shady work" going on somewhere or other, and for all Sonia's comforting assurances concerning my own eventual prosperity, I felt that I was mixed up in about as sinister a mystery as even an escaped murderer could very well have dropped into.