"What else could one do with him?" asked Tiel calmly. "Both Schumann and I believe in being thorough." Of course this worthy pair were but doing their duty. Still I was glad to think they had done their dirty work without my assistance, It was with a conscious effort that I was able to ask calmly-- "How did you manage it?" "Mr Taylor, with his car and his chauffeur, called at the manse. The chauffeur remained in the car, keeping his face unostentatiously concealed. Mr Taylor enjoyed the minister's hospitality till the evening had sufficiently fallen. Then we took him to Edinburgh by the coast road." Tiel paused and looked at me, as though to see how I was enjoying the gruesome tale. I am afraid I made it pretty clear that I was not enjoying it in the least. The idea of first partaking of the wretched man's hospitality, and then coolly murdering him, was a little too much for my stomach. Tiel, however, seemed rather amused than otherwise with my attitude. "We knocked him on the head at a quiet part of the road, stripped him of every stitch of clothing, tied a large stone to his feet, and pitched him over the cliff," he said calmly. "And his clothes----," I began, shrinking back a little in my chair. "Are these," said Tiel, indicating his respectable-looking suit of black. Curiously enough this was the only time I heard the man tell a tale of this sort, and in this diabolical, deliberate, almost flippant way. It was in marked contrast to his usually brief, concise manner of speaking. Possibly it was my reception of his story that discouraged him from exhibiting this side of his nature again. I certainly made no effort to conceal my distaste now. "Thank God, I am not in the secret service!" I said devoutly. "I understand you are in the submarine service," said Tiel in a dry voice. "I am--and I am proud of it!" "Have you never fired a torpedo at an inoffensive merchant ship?" "That is very different!" I replied hotly. "It is certainly more wholesale," said he. I sprang up. "Mr Tiel," I said, "kindly understand that a German naval officer is not in the habit of enduring affronts to his service!" "But you think a German secret-service agent should have no such pride?" he inquired. "I decline to discuss the question any further," I said stiffly. For a moment he seemed exceedingly amused. Then he saw that I was in no humour for jesting on the subject, and he ceased to smile. "Have another cigar?" he said, in a quiet matter-of-fact voice, just as though nothing had happened to ruffle the harmony of the evening. "You quite understand what I said?" I demanded in an icy voice.