“My task,” Lessingham replied, “might just as well never have been entered upon. The man you sent me to watch is nothing but an ordinary sport-loving Englishman.”
“Really! You have lived as his neighbour for nearly a month, and that is your impression of him?”
“It is,” Lessingham assented. “He has been away sea-fishing, half the time, but I have searched his house thoroughly.”
“Searched his papers, eh?”
“Every one I could find, and hated the job. There are a good many charts of the coast, but they are all for the use of the fishermen.”
“Wonderful!” Hayter scoffed. “My young friend, you may yet find distinction in some other walk of life. Our secret service, I fancy, will very soon be able to dispense with your energies.”
“And I with your secret service,” Lessingham agreed heartily. “I dare say there may be some branches of it in which existence is tolerable. That, however, does not apply to the task upon which I have been engaged.”
“You have been completely duped,” Hayter told him calmly, “and the information you have sent us is valueless. Sir Henry Cranston, instead of being the type of man whom you have described, is one of the greatest experts upon coast defense and mine-laying, in the English Admiralty.”
Lessingham laughed shortly.
“That,” he declared, “is perfectly absurd.”