Sir Lyster winced and looked across at him as a man might at a boy who has just blown a trumpet in his ear. Without replying he lifted the telephone receiver from its rest.
"Get me through to the Prime Minister. What's that? Yes, Sir Bridgman's here. Very well, we'll come round at once."
As he replaced the receiver he rose.
"The Prime Minister would like us to step round," he said. "Walton and Sage are there. It's about John Dene."
"Seen John Dene?" asked Sir Bridgman of Mr. Blair, as they passed through the room. "You'd better apply for that twenty thousand pounds, Blair."
Sir Lyster wondered why Sir Bridgman persisted in his jokes, however much they might have become frayed at the edges.
When they entered Mr. Llewellyn John's room it was to find him a veritable aurora borealis of smiles. He was obviously in the best of spirits.
"John Dene has been found," he cried before his callers had taken the chairs to which he waved them.
"We left poor Blair with the same conviction," laughed Sir Bridgman.
"Then you know?"