“You won’t get Mrs. Blair without Colonel Race,” Pagett interposed. “He’s asked her to dine with him, I know.”

Pagett always knows everything. I was justifiably annoyed.

“Who is Race?” I demanded, exasperated.

As I said before, Pagett always knows everything⁠—or thinks he does. He looked mysterious again.

“They say he’s a secret service chap, Sir Eustace. Rather a great gun too. But of course I don’t know for certain.”

“Isn’t that like the government?” I exclaimed. “Here’s a man on board whose business it is to carry about secret documents, and they go giving them to a peaceful outsider, who only asks to be let alone.”