Who besides Buckhurst was involved? How far had Colonel Jarras gone in the investigation during my absence? How close to the imperial throne had the conspiracy burrowed?
Pondering, I slowly retraced my steps through the bedroom and dressing-room, and out into the tiled hallway, where, at the end of the dim corridor, the door of Colonel Jarras’s bureau stood partly open.
Jarras was sitting at his desk as I entered, and he gave me a leaden-eyed stare as I closed the door behind me and stood at attention.
For a moment he said nothing, but presently he partly turned his ponderous body towards me and motioned me to a chair.
As I sat down I glanced around and saw my old comrade, Speed, sitting in a dark corner, chewing a cigarette and watching me in alert silence.
“You are present to report?” suggested Colonel Jarras, heavily.
I bowed, glancing across at Speed, who shrugged 140 his shoulders and looked at the floor with an ominous smile.
Mystified, I began my report, but was immediately stopped by Jarras with a peevish gesture: “All right, all right; keep all that for the Chief of Department. Your report doesn’t concern me.”
“Doesn’t concern you!” I repeated; “are you not chief of this bureau, Colonel Jarras?”
“No,” snapped Jarras; “and there’s no bureau now—at least no bureau for the Foreign Division.”