'Not necessary,' he answered. 'Bring me face to face with a live man--that's all I need, that's all you need to end the war.' 'I am an American,' Lavendale reminded him. Mr. Hurn glanced at his companion curiously. Lavendale, dressed by an English tailor and at home in most of the capitals of Europe, was an unfamiliar type. 'Shouldn't have thought it,' he admitted. 'This the place?' Lavendale nodded and paid for the taxi without any protest from his companion, whom he piloted down many corridors until they reached a room in the rear of the building. A boy scout guarded the door. He stood on one side to let Lavendale pass, but glanced at his companion questioningly. 'Would you mind waiting here just for a moment?' Lavendale suggested. 'My friend is in this room, working with several other men. It would be better for me to have a word with him first.' 'Sure!' the other agreed. 'You run the show. I'll wait.' Lavendale entered the apartment and approached the desk before which his friend was sitting. 'Hullo, Reggie!' he exclaimed. The young man, who was hard at work, looked up from a sheaf of papers and held out his left hand. 'How are you, Ambrose? Sit down by the side of me, if you want to talk. We're up to the eyes here.' Lavendale leaned over the desk. 'Look here, old chap,' he went on, 'I've come on a sort of fool's errand, perhaps. I've got a little American outside. He's a most unholy-looking object, but he wants a word with some one in the Ordnance Department.' Merrill shook his head reproachfully. 'Is this quite fair?' he protested. 'We've had our morning dose of cranks already.' 'I'm sorry,' Lavendale said, 'but you've got to deal with one more.' 'Know anything about him?' 'Not a thing,' Lavendale admitted. 'I've talked to him for five minutes, and I have just an idea that you ought to hear what he has to say.' Merrill laid down a paperweight upon his documents. 'Look here, old fellow,' he said, 'I'll take your little pal round to Bembridge, if you say the word, but I warn you, he is as fed up as I am and he'll be pretty short with him.' 'I shouldn't think my man was sensitive,' Lavendale observed. 'Anyhow, my trouble's over if you'll do that.' Merrill sighed and closed his desk. 'This way, then.' They passed out of the room to where Mr. Daniel H. Hurn was waiting. Merrill seemed a little taken aback as Lavendale briefly introduced them, and his glance towards his friend was significant. However, he led them both down the corridor and knocked at a door at the further end. 'Is the General disengaged?' he asked the orderly who opened it. They were immediately ushered in. Two clerks were seated at a great round table, apparently copying plans. There were models in the room of every form of modern warfare. A tall, thin man in the uniform of a General, was examining some new pattern of hand grenade as they entered.