“ ‘So that you shouldn’t be disturbed, Mr. Graham’—and I thought of the Wolf in ‘Red Riding Hood,’ with his satisfactory answers to all awkward questions.
“ ‘If someone would open it, I’ll get along to the telegraph office,’ I remarked.
“ ‘I wouldn’t dream of your going to so much trouble,’ he said suavely. ‘I’ve a lazy boy I employ in the garden; he’ll take it.’
“For a moment I hesitated, and a glint came into his eyes, which warned me to be careful.
“It was then that I had my brainstorm. If I hadn’t had it I shouldn’t be here now; if the powers that be in the newspaper world were not the quickest people on the uptake you can meet in a day’s march, I shouldn’t be here now either. But like a flash of light there came to my mind the story I had once been told of how a war correspondent in the South African War, at a time when they were tightening the censorship, got back full news of a battle by alluding to the rise and fall of certain stock. And the editor in England read between the lines—substituted troops for stocks, Canadians for C.P.R., and so on—and published the only account of the battle.
“Could I do the same? I hesitated.
“ ‘Oh! there’s one thing I’ve forgotten,’ I remarked. ‘I’ll just add it if the boy can wait.’
“So I sat down at the table, and to my report I added the following sentences:
“ ‘There was also some excellent mustard and cress. Will come at once, but fear to-morrow morning may be too late for me to be of further use over Ronaldshay affair.’
“And then I handed it to the grey-haired man through the window.”