“He was on the next stand,” he replied.
“Then there is something doing, of course,” Violet continued. “My dear Peter, you may be an enigma to other people. To me you have the most expressive countenance I ever saw. You have had a cable which you have just transcribed. If I had been a few minutes later, I think you would have torn up the result. As it is, I think I have come just in time to hear all about it.”
Peter smiled, grimly but fondly. He uncovered the sheet of paper and placed it in her hands.
“So far,” he said, “there isn’t much to tell you. Von Hern turned up this morning with a Major Kosuth, who was one of the leaders of the revolution in Turkey. I wired Paris and this is the reply.”
She read the message through thoughtfully and handed it back. Peter lit a match, and standing over the fireplace calmly destroyed it.
“A million pounds is not a great sum of money,” Violet remarked. “Why could not Kosuth borrow it for his country from a private individual?”
“A million pounds is not a large sum to talk about,” Peter replied, “but it is an exceedingly large sum for any one, even a multi-millionaire, to handle in cash. And Turkey, I gather, wants it at once. Besides, considerations which might be a security from a government, are no security at all as applied to a private individual.”
She nodded.
“Do you think that Kosuth means to go behind the existing treaty and borrow from Germany?”
Peter shook his head.