E-text prepared by Kevin Handy, Dave Maddock, Josephine Paolucci, and the

Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

A ROGUE BY COMPULSION

An Affair of the Secret Service

By VICTOR BRIDGES

With Frontispiece By JOHN H. CASSEL

1915

[Illustration: "A CURTAIN AT THE END OF THE ROOM WAS DRAWN SLOWLY
ASIDE, AND THERE, STANDING IN THE GAP, I SAW THE SLIM FIGURE OF A
GIRL."

Chapter X.

Drawn by John H. Cassel.]

TO

THAT BEST OF FRIENDS

HUGHES MASSIE

CHAPTER

I. A BOLT FOR FREEDOM

II. A BICYCLE AND SOME OVERALLS

III. A DUBIOUS REFUGE

IV. ECHOES OF A FAMOUS CASE

V. AN OFFER WITHOUT AN ALTERNATIVE

VI. THE FACE OF A STRANGER

VII. A KISS AND A CONFESSION

VIII. RT. HON. SIR GEORGE FRINTON, P.C.

IX. THE MAN WITH THE SCAR

X. MADEMOISELLE VIVIEN, PALMIST

XI. BRIDGING THREE YEARS OF SEPARATION

XII. A SCRIBBLED WARNING

XIII. REGARDING MR. BRUCE LATIMER

XIV. A SUMMONS FROM DR. McMURTRIE

XV. A HUMAN "CATCH"

XVI. CONFRONTING THE INTRUDER

XVII. THE WORKSHOP ON THE MARSHES

XVIII. A NEW CLUE TO AN OLD CRIME

XIX. LAUNCHING A NEW INVENTION

XX. APPROACHING A SOLUTION

XXI. SONIA'S SUDDEN VISIT

XXII. THE POLICE TAKE ACTION

XXIII. IN THE NICK OF TIME

XXIV. EXONERATED

XXV. A LITTLE FAMILY PARTY

CHAPTER I

A BOLT FOR FREEDOM

Most of the really important things in life—such as love anddeath—happen unexpectedly. I know that my escape from Dartmoor did.

We had just left the quarries—eighteen of us, all dressed in thatdepressing costume which King George provides for his less elusivesubjects—and we were shambling sullenly back along the gloomy roadwhich leads through the plantation to the prison. The time was aboutfour o'clock on a dull March afternoon.

In the roadway, on either side of us, tramped an armed warder, hiscarbine in his hand, his eyes travelling with dull suspicion up anddown the gang. Fifteen yards away, parallel with our route, the sombrefigure of one of the civil guards kept pace with us through the trees.We were a cheery party!

Suddenly, without any warning, one of the warders turned faint. Hedropped his carbine, and putting his hand to his head, stumbledheavily against the low wall that separated us from the wood. Theclatter of his weapon, falling in the road, naturally brought alleyes round in that direction, and seeing what had happened the wholeeighteen of us instinctively halted.

The gruff voice of the other warder broke out at once, above theshuffling of feet:

"What are you stopping for? Get on there in front."

From the corner of my eye I caught sight of the civil guard hurr

...