Cator, who occupied the post that Colonel Murray-Kerr had once held, was himself a skilled diplomatist. As the confusion caused in the Under-Secretary's mind at his first question had shown how unlikely it was that he would get a clear statement of the truth, he proceeded to work for the information he wanted, and to work in a cautious and indirect manner. Chisholm, recollecting the confidential document which had passed through his hands some time before, and which had aroused his suspicions, said: "I think I know the combination to which you refer. Something regarding it leaked out to one of the newspapers a few weeks ago, and a question was asked in the House." Cator laughed. "Yes," he said, "a question to which you gave a very neat, but altogether unintelligible reply--eh? They were waiting that reply of yours in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a good deal of anxiety, I can tell you. It was telephoned to Paris before you had delivered it." "Ah! copied from one of the sheets of replies given out to the Press Gallery, I expect," observed the Under-Secretary. "But I had no idea that our friends across the Channel were so watchful of my utterances." "Oh, aren't they? They are watchful of your movements, too," replied the Secret Agent of Her Majesty's Foreign Office. "Recollect, Mr. Chisholm, you as Parliamentary Under-Secretary are in the confidence of the Government, and frequently possess documents and information which to our enemies would be priceless. If I may be permitted to say so, you should be constantly on the alert against any of your papers falling into undesirable hands." "But surely none have?" Dudley gasped in alarm. "None have, to my knowledge," his visitor replied. "But information is gained by spies in a variety of ways. Perhaps few know better than myself the perfection of the secret service system of certain Powers who are our antagonists. Few diplomatic secrets are safe from them." "And few of the secrets of our rivals are safe from you, Captain Cator-- if all I've heard be true," observed Chisholm, smiling. "Ah!" the other laughed; "I believe I'm credited with performing all sorts of miracles in the way of espionage. I fear I possess a reputation which I in no way desire. But," he added, "can you tell me nothing more of this man Lennox--of his antecedents, I mean?" "Nothing. I know absolutely nothing of his people." "Can you direct me to the mutual friend at whose rooms you met him, for he might possibly be able to tell us his whereabouts?" "It was a man in the Worcestershire Regiment; he's out in Uganda now. Perhaps the War Office knows, for doubtless he draws his pension," Chisholm suggested. "No. That source of information has already been tried, but in vain." The visitor thrust his ungloved hands into the pockets of his shabby overcoat, stretched out his legs, and fixed his keen eyes upon the rising statesman, to interview whom he had travelled post-haste half across Europe.