"Like most things: simple when you know, baron," he replied. "We tried canvas overalls steeped in hyposulphite of soda—no good; india-rubber solution—equally non-effectual. The gas seemed to eat its way through with hardly any perceptible delay in its action. Glass is impervious to it, but a soldier cannot fight in a glass case."
He paused to watch the effect of his communication, more than half expecting the "baron" to ask him to continue. Had he done so, the Austrian might have drawn into his shell and put his questioner on the wrong scent.
The Englishman offered no remark, but merely refilled his guest's glass.
"Yes," resumed Major Hoffer, "it is a simple preventative—quite accidentally discovered, although the English and Americans would be most glad to know what it is. Hypo-sulphite of soda, alum in solution, and vaseline, all applied to thin canvas overalls and masks, the alum being merely to render the textile fabric non-inflammable."
The conversation was maintained for the best part of an hour, the Austrian officer doing his level best to impress that he was very much "in the know"; while the Englishman, by discreet questioning, obtained a vast store of valuable information.
"Then I will see you to-morrow at eleven," said Hoffer, as he rose to take his departure. "If I were you, baron, I would recommend that Italian prisoners only be taken for the work that your Government proposes to start. They are better than the Serbs, especially the Sicilians and Neapolitans who have previously been employed in their native sulphur mines. I suppose it would be too much to ask you to arrange for the transfer of an English prisoner?"
"An English prisoner?" repeated the supposed German officer. "For what reason?"
Major Hoffer shrugged his shoulders.
"Personally I do not like the responsibility of him," he explained. "We Austrians have not nearly so much hatred for England as you Germans, if you will pardon my saying so. I received the prisoner very unwillingly. He was landed from one of your U-boats at an Adriatic port, and he ought, I take it, to be placed in a German camp. A kapitan-leutnant—Otto von Loringhoven, brother to the Julius von Loringhoven of Zeppelin fame practically insisted that I should receive the prisoner for work in the sulphur mines. Why, I know not."
"What is the prisoner's name?" asked the sham baron.