Discussing an after-dinner smoke, my companion unanimously agreed with me that wild-fowling in that particular neighbourhood hardly augured well, nor did it hold out promise or comfortable prospects; that although the suspicions which had been aroused had been checkmated for the moment, there seemed every probability that further trouble was likely to develop. Perhaps it would be better far to solve the difficulty and ease the minds of all parties concerned if a rapid, mysterious departure, which left no traceable trail behind, was taken. * * * * * Later in the day, as the twilight darkened into night, two shadows might have been seen for a moment as they angled the corner of the inn in that southernmost Danish township and disappeared in the surrounding gloom; travellers once more amidst the flotsam and jetsam of life's highway; travelling they knew not whither, with but one mind and one paradoxical thought--to seek for, and at the same time to avoid, the unknown. FOOTNOTE: [9] The Danes being a race of notoriously hard drinkers resent any literature savouring of Prohibition. CHAPTER XI MAD GAMBLING AND A BIG BRIBE KALEIDOSCOPIC CHANGES IN SECRET SERVICE AGENT'S LIFE--CALLED TO NORWEGIAN CAPITAL FOR ORDERS--ENFORCED IDLENESS--A WAR GAMBLER--HUGE CREDITS--TWISTING THE TAIL OF THE BRITISH LION--AVERTING POSSIBLE WAR--FRENZIED FINANCE--A COLOSSAL BRIBE--TOPHEAVY ARGUMENT--NEWSPAPER INFLUENCE--A GOOD BARGAIN FOR ENGLAND--MILLIONAIRE IN THREE DAYS. The life of a Foreign Secret Service agent in wartime is one of kaleidoscopic changes. He never knows where he is likely to be from one day to another, nor the class of company it may be his lot in life to associate with. One day it may elevate him to be a guest of Royalty, the next may find him in company with the very scum of the earth. _Pro Bono Patriæ_ is his motto. His life and everything he possesses on earth is thrown for the time being into the melting-pot. His sole aim, object, and ambition is to make good. To shoulder successfully and carry through his little bit whereby something may be accomplished, something done, for the furtherance of his country's cause. All through that hard-fought fight the British played the game. They conducted themselves as gentlemen and they never forgot that they were sportsmen as well. We in the Secret Service prided ourselves that we never knowingly abused the hospitality of the neutral nations whose land we were compelled _nolens volens_ to operate in, we never interfered in any way with their politics or their national affairs. Our work lay with the Hun, the enemy; we strictly confined our attentions to him, and to him alone. Yet we were constantly being tempted to be drawn into side issues which it was at times really difficult to avoid.