Technically the service that enlisted Gray in that fall of 1905 had only been born a few months earlier. Its director was the legendary Mansfield Cummings. Generally known to the public as "C," he would eventually become an almost mythic figure within the secret world, establishing a tradition that would last more than thirty years. Agents were gentlemen, because only gentlemen could be trusted. Professionals were avoided, because the motives of a professional were said to be impure. Artists were of interest, because they could create an entirely new personality.

Given the times, Gray's early experience was fairly typical of a young man rather haphazardly recruited by the service. He was trained near Melun in a half-timbered estate that might well have been an English country home. A stone wall enclosed a formal garden of circular hedgerows. Inside, there were high-beamed rooms filled with mock-Tudor furniture and mullioned glass. The odors were distinctly English: boiled meat, tobacco, and dust.

Gray would spend six days under Craven's supervision. Training was mostly informal, with long conversations in the garden, or evening discussions over glasses of port.

"You must never attempt to strain a relationship," Craven told him. "Always go for the natural approach."

"Like the approach you took with me?"

A Cheshire smile. "With you it was different, Nicky. You were a friend."

The first day was spent discussing the larger political scope, including the decline of Russia as a potent military presence in Europe, and the alliance between England and France. Strategists tended to think in terms of counterbalance, and as the strongest nation on the continent, Germany could be held in check only through a Paris-London link. Although a formal military alliance between the British and French would not become a popular notion until the following year, tentative plans had been laid the previous summer. In the beginning these discussions centered on the assumption that a German attack would consist of a wide flanking sweep through Belgium. In response the British proposed an independent thrust along the Baltic coast, ninety miles from Berlin. Through June and July a tentative summary was even committed to paper and shared with the French General Staff . . . which, Craven suggested, was how Rolland Michard managed to get hold of the plan and pass it on to Germany.

"We believe he was recruited about nine months ago," Craven said. "Since then he's been methodically handing the Germans everything."

"But if you're so certain that he's guilty, then why hasn't he been removed?"

"Because we're after bigger game."

"What bigger game?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

In the evenings they played memory games. Various objects were placed in a room, small objects: saltshakers, china figurines, tin soldiers, a notebook, a key chain. Gray would be invited into the room, and while engaged in a meaningless conversation he was to note as many of the objects as possible. In the beginning he was not particularly successful.