"Now who do you think," said the Home Secretary musingly, as he rose from his chair and paced up and down the enormous room, his brows tortured with deep thought--"who do you think there would be--connected with Scotland Yard, mind you!--who would undertake a private inquiry, and be rigidly secret?" "They are all rigidly secret," said Morden simply. The Home Secretary wagged his long head with a weary simulation of cunning, and a would-be sly smile illuminated--or at least undimmed--his eye. "That's all right for the _public_, Morden," he said. "But you'll see what I mean in a moment. Could they find some one even _more_ rigidly secret than the rest? Eh?" "_I_ could," said Morden. "I can tell you his name. A man called Brailton, close over sixty, but very good indeed. He was the man we used when there was that trouble about the death in Lady Matcham's house just before her administration went out of office." "Oh, was he?" cried the Home Secretary eagerly. "Was he?" Then with great satisfaction in his voice: "In that case he is all right. It was certainly astonishing, the way that was kept back....You see, Morden, it's something of the same case here. _The trouble is in my own house_ ... _Paulings_." For once Morden was genuinely taken aback. He was silent. "I see," he at last murmured gravely. "_Your_ house--and the safe side?--Of course!" "It's in my own house--and the safe side? Good God, yes!" The Home Secretary spoke firmly. Then after a pause he added, "When they find out who has done it ..." "Done what?" said Morden. "Never mind," answered his courteous chief. "You're bound to know all about it in good time. Well, as I was saying, when they know who's done it, it might turn out to be some one of whom not a soul in the Press must know that he has done it. I mean, if he _has_ done it, nobody must know that it was he who did it, outside the few who know that he _has_. Have I made myself quite, quite clear?" he asked anxiously. "Perfectly," said Morden. "Now this man Brailton. When could he get down to Paulings?" "He could come at an hour's notice," said Morden. "He got back from Yorkshire last night, and he's got nothing on for the moment." "Ring him up," said the Home Secretary. It was at six removes, and took just over ten minutes. The man in the outer room rang up the department, which told the section, which sent for the controller, who gave the order to the third floor, which got hold of the group, and the group had the good fortune to find Brailton at the end of a wire. Brailton would take whatever train he was told, and was waiting. The Home Secretary meditated.