The telephone rang, and the editor, Mr. E. H. Townsend, left the window to answer it.
"Yes?" he said. "Mr. Craighouse? Send him right in."
He took from a drawer a box of notoriously expensive cigars, and laid it on his desk. The reasonings of Dr. Watson himself could hardly have failed to deduce that the visitor was of some importance.
A moment later a young man, in the uniform of a United States officer, knocked, and, in response to the invitation, entered the inner temple. Mr. Townsend offered him the arm-chair, and reached for the cigars.
"You look well in uniform," he said, after appropriate comments on the April weather had been made by both.
"Thanks. I received your note this morning asking me to call."
"Ah yes. By-the-by, you are sailing soon, I believe?"
"Any time, now; naturally, we don't know to a day."
"What branch of the Service are you with?"
"The Engineers."