unwritten chapters, more dramatic, having really more direct effect
upon the final issue than even the great battles which have seemed
the dominant factors. Sit tight here, Ambrose, and wait. I may be
going over to Boulogne at any hour."

Thomson pushed on one side the curtains which concealed an inner
room, and passed through. In a quarter of an hour he reappeared,
dressed in uniform. His tone, his bearing, his whole manner were
changed. He walked with a springier step, he carried a little cane
and he was whistling softly to himself.

"I am going to one or two places in the Tottenham Court Road, by
appointment," he announced, "to inspect some new patterns of camp
bedsteads. You can tell them, if they ring up from Whitehall, that
I'll report myself later in the evening."

Curiously enough, the other man, too had changed as though in
sympathetic deference to his superior officer. He had become simply
the obedient and assiduous secretary.

"Very good, sir," he said smoothly. "I'll do my best to finish the
specifications before you return."



CHAPTER V

Lord Romsey, after his luncheon-party, spent an hour at his official
residence in Whitehall and made two other calls on his way home. His
secretary met him in the spacious hall of his house in Portland