"Suppose you were given a credential that would effect admittance for you into high official circles--would you go there and attempt to obtain information that might be available, because of your credential?"
"Yes, sir," Irving replied firmly.
"What do you think of that stunt of tattooing a message in the form of a freak art production on the arm of Lieut. Tourtelle?"
Irving smiled.
"Of course," he said, "it was clever and under ordinary circumstances ought to have been successful; but I'd rather not go through life with a thing like that on my arm. It might brand me as a freak, if not something worse."
"I don't blame you," returned the colonel, but as he spoke a peculiar shrewdness lighted his eyes, causing the boy to wonder a little. Then he added: "Still, it might be possible for one to submit to such nonsense if thereby he might advance a great and worthy cause."
"Sure, that's quite possible," Irving agreed; "but I don't see how Tourtelle, or Hessenburg, can claim any such motive."
"No, but if he had done it for his own country, the British empire, to advance the cause of human freedom, what then?"
"Well, in spite of the ridiculous appearance of the picture on his arm, I'd say he ought to be proud to keep it there. I would. I think I'd be proud to show it. It would be something to show and tell about to--to--my great-great-grandchildren when I got old, you see," Irving finished with a really illuminating smile.
"I think I've quizzed you far enough on this subject," Col. Evans announced at this point, throwing off the manner of vagueness that had hitherto characterized a good deal of his conversation, and speaking with unmistakable directness. "I'm now going to ask you to consent to have that cubist picture tattooed on your arm."