I could not see Inspector Pigot's face, but I could see that he held
himself very erect, in a manner bespeaking military training. The
messenger from the legation was a youngish man, with waxed moustache
and wearing an eyeglass. He was greeting M. Pigot at the moment, and,
after a word or two, produced from an inside pocket an
official-looking envelope, tied with red tape and secured with an
immense red seal.

M. Pigot looked at it an instant, while his companion added a
sentence in his ear; then, with a nod of assent, the detective turned
down one of the passage-ways, the other man at his heels.

"Official business, no doubt," commented the purser, who had also
been watching this little scene. "M. Pigot is one of the best of our
officers, and you will find it a pleasure to talk with him. He will
no doubt soon be disengaged."

"Yes, but meanwhile my esteemed contemporaries will arrive," said
Godfrey, with a grimace. "They are on my heels--here they are now!"

In fact, for the next twenty minutes, reporters from the other papers
kept arriving, till there was quite a crowd before the purser's
office. And from nearly every paper a special man had been detailed
to interview M. Pigot. Evidently all the papers were alive to the
importance of the subject. There was some good-natured chaffing, and
then one of the stewards was bribed to carry the cards of the
assembled multitude to M. Pigot's stateroom, with the request for an
audience.