“Yes,” replied the General, “I wanted to talk to you about that. That was really my reason for proposing that we should wait till the second train.”
“There cannot be much to say,” said Jem Agar rather coldly.
“Well, I wanted to tell you all about it.”
“About what?”
There was what the Captain had called an uncanny calm in the voice. General Michael did not answer, and Jem turned slowly towards him.
“I presume,” he said, “that I am right in taking it for granted that you have carried out your share of the contract?”
“My dear fellow, it has been perfectly wonderful. The secret has been kept perfectly.”
“By all concerned?”
“Eh!—yes.”
Michael was glancing furtively at Mark Ruthine, as the fox glances back over his shoulder, not at the huntsman, but at the hounds.