Lavendale drew up a chair and grasped the hand which the other offered him.
'There is plenty going on, if one could get to understand it, Mr. Washburn,' he said. 'Berlin had me puzzled.'
'When did you get back?'
'Last night.'
'See anything of our friend?'
'He crossed with me.'
'Get acquainted with him?'
'Oh! I knew him before in Washington and in New York,' Lavendale replied. 'I took care to remind him of it, too. Yes, he was quite friendly. All the same, he was secretive. He didn't tell me the one thing I discovered of the greatest interest in connection with his trip, and that was that the Kaiser sent his private car three hundred miles and met him at the Western Headquarters. They spent the best part of the day together. Has he been in here?'
Mr. Washburn shook his head.
'He neither reported before he left, nor has he been in since he got back. Kind of giving us the cold shoulder, isn't it?'