“Yes, sir; Mr. Pendleton was quite busy on the ’phone this afternoon.”
“That telephone is not the least of our miracles,” I observed. “I should have expected the line to be smashed to smithereens by the storm.”
“Our wires run underground, sir,” said the keeper.
“What!”
“Yes, sir, all the way to New Aidenn. There was too much trouble with it the other way; so Mr. Pendleton had it changed. Now nothing ever interferes with it.”
I remembered something. “To bring into this discussion an element sadly wanting—”
“What’s that?”
“Disclosures. Tell me, Superintendent, does the pall of official secrecy still cover the weapon discovered by the astute Blenkinson?”
“Not much use trying to keep anything secret hereabout,” said Salt with a smile, which made me wonder what recent discoveries actually reposed undivulged beneath that sodden hat and those iron-grey curly locks. “The lid is off that little matter.”
“It is the weapon? What had Blenkinson found?”