"Is it necessary with me?" "It is necessary with any friend of Mr.
Jocelyn Thew," he told her didactically.
"What a suspicious person you are!" she exclaimed, a little scornfully. "You are just like all your countrymen. You get hold of an idea and nothing can shake it. Mr. Jocelyn Thew, I dare say, possesses a past. I know for a fact that he has been engaged in all sorts of adventures during his life. But—at your instigation, I suppose—they have already searched his person, his stateroom, and every article of luggage he has. After that, why not leave him alone?"
"Because he is an extremely clever person."
"Then you are not satisfied yet?"
"Not yet."
"Am I, may I ask, under suspicion?" she enquired, with faint sarcasm.
"I should not like to say," he replied glibly, "that you were altogether free from it."
She laughed heartily.
"I should not worry about the army if I were you," she advised. "I am quite sure that secret-service work is the natural outlet for your talents."
"I shouldn't be surprised," he confided, "if headquarters didn't insist upon my taking it up permanently. It will depend a little, of course, upon what success I have during this voyage."