THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS
Royer will go back to Paris in the belief that the whole business is still deadly secret. If they can't do that they fail, for once we suspect they know that the whole thing must be altered."
"Then we must stick by the Frenchman's side till he is home again," I said. "If they thought they could get the information in Paris they would try there. It means that they have some deep scheme on foot in Lonidon which they reckon is going to win out."
"Royer dines with my chief, and then comes to my house where four people will see him—Whittaker from the Admiralty, myself, Sir Arthur Drew, and General Winstanley. The First Lord is ill, and has gone to Sheringham, At my house he will get a certain document from Whittaker, and after that he will be motored to Portsmouth where a destroyer will take him to Havre. His journey is too important for the ordinary boat-train. He will never be left unattended for a moment till he is safe on French soil. The same with Whittaker till he meets Royer. That is the
174
