“I thought you were never coming,” said George, springing up to meet him. “I’ve been here hours. You have lost the train.”
“Yes. Speak low, and don’t look towards the door. I’ll tell you all about it.”
They seated themselves on chairs, placing them where there was no danger of being overheard. Buckland lit a cigarette.
“I had to wait while a new despatch was ciphered,” he said. “There’s no doubt that I’m being shadowed, George. The Count and his secretary got in at Sunbury; their car’s outside; and I’ve just seen two of their men in Whitehall.”
“By gum! the two others are somewhere about. I drove across country to Richmond, but I believe I saw the yellow car behind me as I came through Putney. It was a good way behind, and I couldn’t be sure of it. I had enough to do to steer clear of the traffic from Putney on; but, you may depend on it, they had their eye on me, and they know I’ve got your baggage.”
“Well, it’s pretty clear that they mean business. They’re bent on intercepting my despatch. We know there are six of them; how many more we can’t tell; but it looks as if they’ve made their plans on a pretty large scale.”
“It must cost a heap of money,” said George.
“That’s a small matter compared with the value of the information they hope to get. For every hundred they spend in obtaining news they may save a million. They mean by hook or crook to find out what England’s next move is to be, and when they take a matter of that sort in hand they don’t do things by halves. I’m certain they have made very complete arrangements to shadow and run down any one passing between the Foreign Office and our agency at Sofia.”
“By Jove!” was all that George could utter for a moment. His notion of it’s being what he had called a “lark” had quite vanished. “What will you do, old man?” he asked at length.
“I think I had better slip out by the back entrance in Craven Street, and make a dash in a taxi for Herne Hill. You stay here till I ’phone you from the station; then send the porter with my valise to Charing Cross and tell him to book it through to Paris by the 9 o’clock. I’ll wait at Herne Hill for the next Dover train.”