“I got a queer story from one of those chaps at the London Hospital,” he said, “I don’t know whether I can use it.” “What is it?” I asked carelessly. “This man said that every night our front line near Bois Grenier is evacuated to save the men from the effect of the German shelling. As soon as it gets dark the whole line on a front of six miles is withdrawn to the support trenches, and he said he was wounded through being ordered back to the front line before the German’s artillery strafe had finished.” “That is very interesting,” said I, “on a front of six miles you say?” “That’s right,” he said, “from Bois Grenier down to Festubert. Do you think I had better use the story?” “I think not,” I said shaking my head, “I don’t think it would be patriotic. Those horrid Germans might get hold of the information and use it to destroy our brave soldiers.” “That is what I thought,” said Mister Haynes, though he did not seem very enthusiastic, and indeed, as he told me, his reluctance to impart the information had less to do with the safety of the soldiers than with his own. “I don’t want three months’ hard labour under the Defence of the Realm Act,” he said. You may be sure that I was not very long in coding this news, though it was some time before I could get my telegram to Stockholm. Apparently the British Government were holding up all messages for forty-eight hours, but this did not worry me so long as it reached its destination eventually. Naturally I received a reply in a much shorter space of time. In fact, Berlin acknowledged my message within twelve hours of its receipt. You will remember that in the first week of February we Germans delivered a sudden and fierce attack upon the British front line positions between Festubert and Bois Grenier. Owing to some unhappy and unfortunate change of plan the front lines of the English position were filled with soldiers, but this was probably due to the carelessness of General von Klaus who had assembled his troops for the offensive in broad daylight under the eyes of the British airmen. Von Klaus himself denied this, but that is the theory which I have formed, because Mister Haynes afterwards told me that he had had his story confirmed from three independent sources, and gave me the names of his informants, and even showed me the photograph of one of them. Klein, who was up on a brief visit to London--he was very busy in South Wales on propaganda work with his friend Mr. Craigmair--was anxious that I should send Mister Haynes to the West of England where certain experiments were being made with a new kind of armoured car. He had attempted to get into the camp, which was guarded as carefully as any prison, and had narrowly escaped being arrested.