“Are you quite sure you’ve made no mistake?” inquired Pryor of his companion.
“Positive, my dear Ronald. That’s the man whom I met in the uniform of the Royal Flying Corps, and who was so kind to me. No doubt, he doesn’t recognise me in these clothes.”
“Perhaps he has leave to wear _civvies_,” she replied. “There are so many curious regulations and exemptions nowadays.”
Though the stranger’s eyes had met those of Beryl there had been no sign of recognition. Hence she soon began to share Ronald’s doubt as to whether he was really the same person who had descended in that potato field in Lincolnshire, and had so gallantly assisted her in her trouble.
Ronald and his well-beloved, having finished their luncheon, rose and drove together in a taxi over to Waterloo, the former being due to visit his works at Weybridge, where he had an appointment with one of the Government Inspectors.
As soon as they had passed out of the restaurant the man who sat alone tossed his paper aside, paid his bill, and left.
Ten minutes later he entered a suite of chambers in Ryder Street, where an elderly, rather staid-looking grey-haired man rose to greet him.
“Nothing much--except that Pryor is flying to-night on patrol work,” replied the other in German.
“H’m, that means that he will have the new silencer upon his machine!”
“Exactly,” said the man who had displayed the silver wings of the Royal Flying Corps, though he had no right whatever to them. “By day ‘The Hornet’ never carries the silencer. I proved that when I assisted the girl in Lincolnshire. We can only secure it by night.”
“Then how do you intend to act, my dear Leffner.”
The man addressed shrugged his shoulders.
“I have an idea,” was his reply. “But I do not yet know if it is feasible until I make further observations and inquiries.”
“You anticipate success? Good!” the elder man replied in satisfaction. “Think of all it means to us. Only to-day I have received another very urgent request from our good friend, Mr. J----; a request for the full details of the construction of ‘The Hornet.’”
“We have most of them,” replied the man addressed as Leffner.
“But not the secret of the silencer. That seems to be well guarded, does it not?”
“It is very well guarded,” Leffner admitted. “But I view the future with considerable confidence because the girl flies the machine alone, and--well,” he laughed--“strange and unaccountable accidents happen to aeroplanes sometimes!”