“It’s practically impossible that you should see the Governor-General again. He is so occupied,” he said, firmly.
Gerard got up from his chair.
“Where is he?”
“Ah!” said Baumann, wisely. “That is another matter.”
“Then you don’t know,” exclaimed Gerard, standing over him.
“No,” answered Baumann, and it took Gerard the rest of that day before he ran his chief to earth. Like other busy men, the Governor-General had the necessary time to give to necessary things, and in a spare corner of the Colonial Office, he listened with some astonishment, asked a few questions, and wrote a note to the War Office.
“This will get you what you want, De Montignac. For the rest, I agree.”
Forty-eight hours later Gerard had a long interview with Ahmed Ben Larti in a private ward to which the Moor had been removed: and towards the end of the interview, Ahmed Ben Larti made a suggestion.
“That’s it!” said Gerard enthusiastically. Then his spirits dropped. “But we haven’t got any. No, we haven’t got one.”
“The Governor-General,” the Moor suggested.