During these operations the show of secrecy was maintained, but Captain Gore-Jones still zealously endeavored to keep himself and his government _au courant_ with everything that was going on. In pursuit of this duty, he managed on one occasion to get into the shipyard in the disguise of a workman and on the pass or ticket which was then issued for the admission of workingmen. He was, however, soon observed by Captain Avalan of the “Asia,” who at once reported the fact of his presence to the office. Captain Gore-Jones was then politely but firmly ushered out of the shipyard and requested not to enter it again. [Illustration: AMERICAN LINER ST. PAUL] This incident of Captain Gore-Jones’s futile attempt to play detective attracted wide attention and much comment. Among the newspaper articles on that subject was one in the columns of the Washington _Sunday Capital_, a journal then having national reputation for wit and humor. The material part of it was as follows: “Among the ornaments of the Diplomatic Corps is a possible, though not altogether probable, successor of Nelson. He appears in the Congressional Directory as Captain Gore-Jones, Naval Attaché of H. B. M. Legation. Neither one of his two names, viewed separately, suggest aristocracy. Both viewed together in normal condition are not calculated to excite suspicion of blue blood. Still, Gore-Jones is an aristocrat. The hyphen is what does it. For the rest, Gore-Jones, being an English naval officer, is a Welshman born in Ireland. “His duties are supposed to be the observing of things naval in this country. Being unable to discover a navy, or anything resembling one, in possession of the United States, it occurred to him that perhaps he might find here a navy or part of one belonging to some other power. In fact, it was rumored in the Corps Diplomatique that Gore-Jones had been notified that he must either find a navy in this country somewhere and belonging to somebody or lose his job. Naturally, his first quest would be at our navy-yards (so-called), but at none of these could he even detect symptoms of naval intention. All he could find was a few old hawse-holes. He was informed that these had been accumulated by that jolly old tar, the rotund Robeson, with the intention of building wooden tubs around them whenever Grant might happen to run for a third term. He was also informed that the present reform administration of the venerable Richard W. Thompson, of Indiana, viewed these hawse-holes with suspicion. This was because they were hollow; whereas the venerable reformer believed that everything about a ship should be solid.