He was dressed in a dark brown suit, and was none other than the grey-faced stranger who, four days before, had sat in the schoolroom at North Walsham and had aroused the curiosity of the coroner. "Well, Darnborough, what's the matter?" asked the Earl, passing his visitor the cigar-box. "I can see there's trouble by your face. What's the latest problem--eh?" The visitor selected a cigar, turned it over in his fingers critically, and then, rising suddenly, bit off the end viciously and crossed to the electric lighter near the fireplace. "Well," he answered, "there are several things. First, we know why poor Harborne was killed." "Good," replied his lordship. "You Secret Service men always get to know all there is to know. You're marvellous! Have you told them at Scotland Yard?" "No, and I don't mean to," replied Hugh Darnborough, the chief of the British Secret Service, the clever, ingenious man whose fingers were upon the pulse of each of the Great Powers, and whose trusty agents were in every European capital. Long ago he had held a commission in the Tenth Hussars, but had resigned it to join the Secret Service, just as Dick Harborne had resigned from the Navy to become a cosmopolitan, and to be dubbed an adventurer by those in ignorance. That had been years ago, and now he held the position of being the most trusted man in any Government department, the confidant of each member of the Cabinet, and even of the Sovereign himself, who frequently received him in private audience. "You have reasons for not telling them at Scotland Yard--eh?" asked the Foreign Minister. "Strong ones," replied the other, pulling hard at his cigar. "A woman who, I have ascertained, was on one occasion very useful to us, would be dragged into it--perhaps incriminated. And you know we are never anxious to court publicity." "Ah! A woman--eh?" "Yes; a young, and rather pretty, woman." "And you've come all the way from London, and got here at eleven o'clock at night, to tell me this?" "I have something else--of greater gravity." "Well, let's hear the worst," said the Earl with a sigh. "Every day brings its troubles. Look yonder!" and he pointed to the table. "Those are despatches from all the Embassies. The eternal Balkan trouble seems threatening to break out, unless we take strong action. Bulgaria is mobilising again, and Turkey is protesting." "There has been a leakage from the Admiralty. How, I cannot explain. A copy of the secret report upon our last naval manoeuvres is in the hands of our friends in the Wilhelmstrasse." "What?" cried the Earl, starting, his face pale with alarm. "I repeat that the report is known in Germany--every word of it!" "And our weakness is thereby revealed?" "The exact position is known." "But the confidential report has not yet come through to me!" "And yet it has somehow leaked out from Whitehall," Darnborough replied, drily. "A full and drastic inquiry must be ordered. I will telephone at once to the First Lord."