He happened to be having tea
there for the reason that ever since the arrival of this lady in
London, at the request of--er--friends in India, I have been
keeping track of her every move; just as I kept watch over your
late brother, the captain."
Without a word Lieutenant Fraser-Freer dropped into a chair and
buried his face in his hands.
"I'm sorry, my son," said Hughes. "Really, I am. You made a
heroic effort to keep the facts from coming out--a man's-size
effort it was. But the War Office knew long before you did that
your brother had succumbed to this woman's lure--that he was
serving her and Berlin, and not his own country, England."
Fraser-Freer raised his head. When he spoke there was in his voice
an emotion vastly more sincere than that which had moved him when
he made his absurd confession.
"The game's up," he said. "I have done all I could. This will
kill my father, I am afraid. Ours has been an honorable name,
Colonel; you know that--a long line of military men whose loyalty
to their country has never before been in question. I thought my
confession would and the whole nasty business, that the
investigations would stop, and that I might be able to keep forever
unknown this horrible thing about him--about my brother."
Colonel Hughes laid his hand on the boy's shoulder, and the latter
went on: "They reached me--those frightful insinuations about
Stephen--in a round about way; and when he came home from India I
resolved to watch him.
Pages:
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88