insistently to a secret of the Browns which had baffled Bouchard. "Try a
woman," he went on with that terse, hard directness which reflected one
of his sides. "There is nobody like a woman for that sort of thing.
Spend enough to get the right woman."

Turcas and Bouchard exchanged a glance, which rose suggestively from the
top of the head of the seated vice-chief of staff. Turcas smiled
slightly, while Bouchard was graven as usual.

"You could hardly reach Lanstron though you spent a queen's ransom,"
said Bouchard in his literal fashion.

"I should say not!" Westerling exclaimed. "No doubt about Lanstron's
being all there! I saw him ten years ago after his first aeroplane
flight under conditions that proved it. However, he must have
susceptible subordinates."

"We'll set all the machinery we have to work to find one, sir," Bouchard
replied.

"Another thing, we may dismiss any idea that they are concealing either
artillery or dirigibles or planes that we do not know of," continued
Westerling. "That is a figment of our apprehensions. The fact that we
find no truth in the rumors proves that there is none. Such things are
too important to be concealed by one army from another."

"Lanstron certainly cannot carry them in his pockets," remarked Turcas.
"Still, we must be sure," he added thoughtfully, more to himself than to
Westerling, who had already turned his attention to a document which
Turcas had laid on the desk.