Drummond indignantly. "I never sent a long
telegram to any one in my life. I tell you I don't know anything about
this Mr Taylor or his motor-car. If Mr Burnett told you that, he's
light-headed indeed!"

"Those are merely the questions Captain Blacklock asked me to put,"
said the lieutenant soothingly.

"Is he the officer in command of the base?" demanded Mr Drummond a
little fiercely.

"No," said Topham briefly; "Commander Blacklock is an officer on
special service at present."

"Commander!" exclaimed Mr Drummond with a menacing sniff. "But you
just called him Captain."

"Commanders get the courtesy title of Captain," explained the
lieutenant, rising as he spoke. "Thank you very much, Mr Drummond.
There's only one thing more I'd like to say----"

"Ay, but there are several things I'd like to say!" said Mr Drummond
very firmly. "I want to know what's the meaning of this outrage to my
friend. What's your theory?"

Before the war Lieutenant Topham had been an officer in a passenger
liner, but he had already acquired in great perfection the real Navy
mask.

"It seems rather mysterious," he replied--in a most unsuitably light
and indifferent tone, Mr Drummond considered.

"But surely you have _some_ ideas!"

The Lieutenant shook his head.

"We'll probably get to the bottom of it sooner or later."

"A good deal later than sooner, I'm afraid," said Mr Drummond severely.
"You've informed the police, I presume."

"The affair is not in my hands, Mr Drummond."

"Then whose hands is it in?"

"I have not been consulted on that point."

Ever since the war broke out Mr Drummond's views concerning the Navy
had been in a state of painful flux. Sometimes he felt a genuine pride
as a taxpayer in having provided himself with such an efficient and
heroic service; at other times he sadly suspected that his money had
been wasted, and used to urge upon all his acquaintance the strong
opinion that the Navy should really "do something"--and be quick about
it too!

Lieutenant Topham depressed him greatly. There seemed such an
extraordinary lack of intelligent interest about the fellow. How
differently Nelson would have replied!

"Well, there's one thing I absolutely insist upon getting at the bottom
of," he said resolutely. "I am accused of sending a long telegram to
Mr Burnett about a Mr Taylor. Now I want to know the meaning of that!"

Lieutenant Topham smiled, but his smile, instead of soothing, merely