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hard up for money to carry on his scientific experiments and she could well afford to give him a princely allowance. He is, too, rather weak, a vain type of man, and he admired her beauty so much that he agreed from the beginning that if she would become his Countess he would leave her completely free to amuse herself in any way she liked.”
    Grauber remained silent for a moment, then he said: “I could make von Osterberg dance to any tune I like. How would it be if I made him write to her via the Swiss Legation, and dangle before her the prospect of a divorce if she is prepared to come over and meet himsomewhere just inside the German border, to discuss the legal aspects of the thing?”
    â€œI agree that if you could once succeed in luring her back into Germany she would make the best possible bait to draw Sallust into the net afterwards. But she would show him the letter, and no man in his senses would allow the woman he loves to risk such a trip simply on the off-chance of getting a divorce.”
    â€œI was counting on her showing the letter to him, and I think you’re right that he would not let her come—alone.”
    â€œI see. You think there is a chance of killing these two birds with one stone?”
    â€œYes. The war may go on for years yet, so if he really wishes to marry her I don’t think he will let such an opportunity slip. The odds are that he will accompany her to Switzerland, and with a little luck I shall snare them both in the same noose.”
    Canaris shook his dome-like head. “It’s not good enough, my dear
Herr Gruppenführer
. It’s much too obvious. I feel sure that two such clever people would realise that it was a trap.”
    â€œNot necessarily.” Grauber’s solitary eye glinted as the swift thoughts sped through his brain. “The whole plan would, of course, be worked out very carefully. Von Osterberg could say that he had had to give up his war job on account of some illness and that he was greatly in need of money. He could say that he had heard through some neutral diplomat that she could never come back to Germany as she was now living with an Englishman. He could offer her a divorce in exchange for her making over to him a certain sum, to be agreed, in German securities. He could tell her that he was living very quietly somewhere on our side of the Bodensee, and that he could not make the crossing into Switzerland on account of his illness, but there would be very little risk in her slipping across one night to see him and get the whole thing fixed up.”
    â€œIt stinks, my friend, it stinks,” said the Admiral. “They would never fall for such a story as that. But if you plant von Osterberg on the Swiss side of Lake Constance—that would be very different. It might not even occur to them then that a visit to him would entail any risk at all; but he, or one of your people that you sent with him in the guise of a servant, could give a prearranged signal on the night they came to see him. He would have to arrange to make it a night appointment, of course. Then a squad of your men, that you would have ready for the purpose, could easily carry out a little raid into Switzerland, surround the house, put them both in the bag and bring them back across the lake.”
    â€œ
Kolossal, Herr Admiral! Kolossal!
” Grauber exclaimed. “Howright I was to ask you for your assistance. But wait a moment. What reason can von Osterberg be told to give for having gone to live in Switzerland? He would not be permitted to do so on grounds of ill-health alone; unless he was a consumptive, and then he would not be renting a house on the lake-side, but in some sanatorium up in the mountains.”
    â€œTrue. Do you know what sort of war work he is now employed on?”
    â€œYes, as it happens I do. He was in one of Krupps’ laboratories; but I was doing a security check only last week on a list of scientists who have