The liner on which Lee Mappin was travelling on what was to be one of his most dangerous and exciting missions slid unescorted from New York, her sides brilliantly flood-lit to display the neutral flag of Portugal. Among the passengers who crowded every cabin were several in whom Lee took more than a mild interest; the good-looking, smiling young Ronald Franklin, for instance, who said he was an American agent for Swiss watches; John Stanley, going out to the hard-pressed U.S. Legation in Lisbon, and his young wife Vera, daughter of a wealthy tobacco nabob; Kate Mc Donald, the smartly dressed but slightly pseudo-Scottish woman. Whatever the divers purposes which prompted their voyage to Europe their immediate activities were going to be very much the concern of Lee Mappin.