He had provided the minister with another excellent cigar, and smoking in comfort behind a glass wind-screen, with the dim country slipping by and the first pale star faintly shining overhead, the pair fell into easy discourse. Mr Taylor was a remarkably sympathetic talker, the minister found. He kept the conversation entirely on his companion's affairs, putting innumerable questions as to his habits and way of life, and indeed his whole history, and exhibiting a flattering interest in his answers. Mr Burnett said to himself at last, with a smile, that this inquiring gentleman would soon know as much about him as he knew himself. Once or twice the minister wondered how fast they were really going. They did not seem to him to be achieving any very extraordinary speed, but possibly that was only because the big car ran so easily. In fact, when he once questioned his companion, Mr Taylor assured him that actually was the explanation. It was thus pretty dark when they struck the coast road, and it grew ever darker as they ran northward through a bare, treeless country, with the cliff edge never far away and the North Sea glimmering beyond. They had reached an absolutely lonely stretch of road that hugged the shore closely when the car suddenly stopped. "Hallo!" exclaimed Mr Taylor, "what's up?" The chauffeur half-turned round and said in a low voice-- "Did you see that light, sir?" "Which light?" The chauffeur pointed to the dark stretch of turf between them and the edge of the cliffs. "Just there, sir. I saw it flash for a second. I got a glimpse of some one moving too, sir." Mr Taylor became intensely excited. "A spy signalling!" he exclaimed. "Looks like it, sir," said the chauffeur. Mr Taylor turned to the minister with an eager, resolute air. "Our duty's clear, Mr Burnett," said he. "As loyal subjects of King George--God bless him!--we've got to have a look into this!" With that he jumped out and stood by the open door, evidently expecting the minister to follow. For a moment Mr Burnett hesitated. A vague sense that all was not well suddenly affected him. "Do not go!" something seemed to say to him. And yet as a man and a loyal subject how could he possibly decline to assist in an effort to foil the King's enemies? Reluctantly he descended from the car, and once he was on the road, Mr Taylor gave him no time for further debate. "Come on!" he whispered eagerly; and then turning to the chauffeur, "come along too, James!" Close by there was a gate in the fence, and they all three went through this and quietly crossed the short stretch of grass between the road and the cliffs, Mr Taylor and the minister walking in front and the chauffeur following close at their heels. Now that the car was silent, they could hear the soft lapping of the water at the cliff foot, but that and the fall of their feet on the short crisp turf were the only sounds.