"One spy has already been detected and warned off by our man who is established in the village, but we have just learnt that another agent has obtained admission to the house itself, by taking service as a footman. On a previous occasion we alarmed Lord Lothersdale, without any real grounds, as it eventually turned out, and we should not care to repeat the incident. It is therefore essential that I, who know this man, should have the opportunity of seeing if he really is there, without anyone--not even his lordship--knowing who I am. With your assistance this will be possible; and I have come from Scotland Yard to ask you to allow me to go with you to Moors to-day, ostensibly as connected with your firm. If you will assist us in this matter you will not find us ungrateful. Scotland Yard does not forget, and some day it may be in our power to be of use to you. In the meantime, you will have done your country a great service." Mr. Bower was considerably impressed by this speech. He had come back from Moors full of importance. He was most certainly assisting in preserving the integrity of the empire, and it was quite in keeping with this feeling that he should take part in the international complication outlined by his visitor. He appeared to weigh the matter judicially for a few minutes. Then he said solemnly, "We will give you our co-operation in this affair, Mr. Sinnott." "Thank you, Mr. Bower," said the "detective." So at one o'clock that afternoon Mr. Bower, accompanied by his new assistant, took train for Moors. In another compartment travelled a sample corporal of the British Army, who was to show off the uniform which Mr. Bower had designed under Lord Lothersdale's instructions. It was a two-hours' journey, but Mr. Sinnott found it all too short in Mr. Bower's improving society, for that gentleman expounded views on life from a new standpoint. "No, sir," he said, "things are not what they used to be. Gentlemen--noblemen, especially, I regret to state--do not display that intelligent attention to dress which they used to, even within my own recollection Lord Lothersdale is a notable exception, but enumerate any other statesmen you like, and if left to their own unaided judgment--I say it with all due deference--they would go to pieces. I assure you, upon my honour, at the end of six months you would be liable to mistake any one of them for a foreigner. You would scarcely think it, Mr. Sinnott, but no less than five members of the present Government are too busy to give a thought to their dress at all." "You don't say so!" exclaimed Mr. Sinnott.