I must say Sir Francis stage-managed our entrance into the Scollays' house very effectively. As he quietly opened the door, he got us all close behind him, exactly like a band of robbers, so that we trod on one another's heels down a yard or two of narrow passage. The Scollays were all seated round the kitchen table when our uncle's figure suddenly towered out of the gloom, his pistol covering Peter senior's head, and his voice thundering: "Hands up!" At the first command they simply gasped. "Hands up or I fire!" thundered Sir Francis again, and up went every pair of hands, and what is more they stayed up. "Your confederate is captured and has confessed everything!" announced Sir Francis. The family visibly trembled but looked more amazed than ever. "This fellow they call--" My uncle looked over his shoulder and whispered, "What the devil was the fellow's name." And then in his stentorian voice again, "This fellow called Jock has confessed! So I know all about it. What have you got to say for yourselves?" I saw their bewildered eyes wandering from one to the other of the family, and in a moment Mrs. Scollay asked in a quavering voice, "What's come over Jock, do ye say, sir?" "He has _confessed_!" repeated my uncle. "We know that he is a German spy!" He glared at each astounded face in turn and then exclaimed over his shoulder, "By Heaven, I actually don't believe they knew!" "I think, sir, if you'll allow me," suggested my cousin, "I'd like to put a few questions." "Well," growled our uncle, "fire away!" We all trooped into the kitchen and the whole four of us cross-examined that family in turn, so that by the end of it we got a pretty good idea of how the land lay. It seemed that two years before, the Scollays had been visited by a polite stranger apparently of the tourist species. This gentleman, after admiring the healthy yet retired situation of their residence, had suddenly been seized with an inspiration. The very place for an unfortunate young man of his acquaintance! he cried, and thereupon asked them if they could take charge of a blameless, helpless, harmless idiot. The stranger hinted that there were the best of reasons why the parents of this unfortunate wished him kept in the background. He had been boarded out previously, it appeared, but too near home, and now here was an ideal out-of-the-way spot for his retirement! The terms were so handsome that further enquiries on the Scollays' part seemed superfluous, and so in a week's time Jock had arrived.