Burton's usual sleuth Desmond Merrion, working in intelligence during WWII, finds that a small village on England's south coast seems to be the source of information about ships which is being given to the enemy. Meanwhile a young Wren, on leave and visiting the aunts who brought her up, has a late-night adventure which ends with her finding a body which subsequently disappears. When the body reappears in unusal circumstances, and another character is also found to have been killed, Merrion has his work cut out, especially as a possible suspect is actually one of his own operatives. Not an outstanding mystery, but the method by which the spy passed on his information is quite ingenious. ( )