Jasper Thrale's mission was no easy one. England, it appeared, was slightly preoccupied at the moment, and had no ear for warnings. Generally, he was either treated as a fanatic and laughed at, or he was told that he greatly exaggerated the danger and that these matters could safely be entrusted to the Local Government Board, which had brilliantly handled the recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. But there were some exceptions to this rule. His first definite statement had been made to his own editor, Watson Maxwell of the Daily Post. "Yes," said Maxwell, when he had given Thrale a patient hearing, "it is certainly a matter that needs attention. Would you care to go out as our special commissioner and report at length?..." "There isn't time," replied Thrale. "The thing is urgent." Maxwell brought his eyebrows together and looked keenly at his correspondent. "Do you really think it's so serious, Thrale?" he asked. "After all, what evidence have you, beyond the Chinese reports?" "I know there are several cases in Russia," said Thrale. "Yes, yes; I don't doubt that," returned Maxwell, with a touch of impatience. "But unless you can bring evidence to show that this new disease is as deadly as you say, it is not a matter that I could give space to at the present time. For one thing, the Evening Chronicle has been making rather a feature of it for the last three or four days, and I don't see that I could do much unless we had some special inside information. Then, the House will be sitting again next week, and it seems to me not altogether improbable that we shall have a stormy session, which will mean that a good deal of ordinary matter will have to give way...." He broke off, and then added, with a friendly smile: "But if you would go out as our commissioner, we should be glad to make you a proposal." "There will be no need for a commissioner in a week's time," replied Thrale. "You don't seem to understand that I'm not looking out for a job. I don't want to write articles; I don't want to be paid for the information I can supply. I foresee a grave danger, which is growing more grave hourly by reason of the Russian Government's censorship of all reports referring to the plague. It is a danger which should be understood at once. If you send any commissioner, send the cleverest physician you can find, and a bacteriologist."