"When did you get that?" I cried.
"It was handed to me as we landed. The messenger went off again at once, but I assumed of course it was from you."
"Roger!" thundered my uncle. "Who have you taken into your confidence?"
His eye turned manacingly on the doctor and I hastened to intervene.
"Dr. Rendall—Sir Francis Merton," I introduced. "But it certainly wasn't
Dr. Rendall who sent these messages. He has only just learned the facts."
My uncle bowed very stiffly to the doctor and turned on me again.
"And how many more people have 'learned the facts'—the facts, I may remind you, which it was so vital they should not learn?"
I bared my metaphorical breast, and with as close an imitation of a clear-conscienced young man revealing the harmless necessary truth as I could achieve without rehearsal, I told him,
"I have only informed one person, and she is thoroughly trustworthy."
"She!" said my uncle, not very loudly but extremely unpleasantly.