inanced Hellenic Turks who laid
injunctions on rights-of-way, issued writs against movement of goods,
and sought to inflame French against English and Italian against both.
The consuls had been the curse of every executive at Headquarters, for
their resources and nerve seemed unlimited. They worked together like a
team of experienced crooks on a steamship, and never for a moment were
the invaders permitted to forget that the local government was neutral.
The major was happier than he had been for a long while, though he
lacked the emotional demonstrativeness proper to such a mood. All three
of these men, by their reports, had aided in the grand _coup_ which had
culminated that evening in the expulsion of the consuls across the
frontier. But their first thought, when Mr. Dainopoulos mentioned
consuls, was that by some ghastly mischance the consuls had got back
into Saloniki and the whole weary business was to begin again.

"Eh?" said the major, snarling up his upper lip so that his moustache
looked more like a nail-brush than ever, and looking as if he were about
to spring up and fasten his teeth in his visitor's neck. "What's that?"

Thus having evoked a suitable interest in his affairs, Mr. Dainopoulos
drew a small notebook from his pocket and began to enumerate the list of
goods the sudden departure of the consuls had left on his hands. In the
midst of it, the major nodded to a chair and said, "Sit down over here,
please." Mr. Dainopoulos came forward, sat down, and proceeded. The
naval lieutenant reached over to the dressing table, took up a Turkish
dagger and began turning it over in his hands, examining the edge with
an intense stare. The censor drew steadily at his pipe and looked Mr.
Dainopoulos up and down. He was a novelist, and of the three may be said
to have had some practice in the gauging of character. He was aware, in
spite of a life spent exclusively in southern England and among one
small exclusive caste of English people, that this Levantine might have
a view of his own. He was interesting. Where had he picked up that
English wife? A slight shudder passed over him in spite of himself at
the thought of an English woman in a Levantine's arms. No doubt,
however, she was a house-maid or something of that sort. Must be making
a lot of money. The censor felt a surge of indignation over this. His
own family's resources had been quadrupled by the war; but that of
course was the reward of patriotic endeavour. H