'I don't want anything of the kind,' he said very slowly and
distinctly. 'You've got to attend very close to your instructions, I
cherish these two beauties as if they were my own white-headed
boys. I wouldn't for the world interfere with their comfort and
liberty. I want them to go on corresponding with their friends. I
want to give them every facility.'

He burst out laughing at my mystified face.

'See here, Dick. How do we want to treat the Boche? Why, to
fill him up with all the cunningest lies and get him to act on them.
Now here is Moxon Ivery, who has always given them good
information. They trust him absolutely, and we would be fools to
spoil their confidence. Only, if we can find out Moxon's methods,
we can arrange to use them ourselves and send noos in his name
which isn't quite so genooine. Every word he dispatches goes
straight to the Grand High Secret General Staff, and old Hindenburg
and Ludendorff put towels round their heads and cipher it out.
We want to encourage them to go on doing it. We'll arrange to
send true stuff that don't matter, so as they'll continue to trust
him, and a few selected falsehoods that'll matter like hell. It's a
game you can't play for ever, but with luck I propose to play it
long enough to confuse Fritz's little plans.'

His face became serious and wore the air that our corps
commander used to have at the big pow-wow before a push.

'I'm not going to give you instructions, for you're man enough
to make your own. But I can give you the general hang of the
situation. You tell Ivery you're going North to inquire into