Some day you shall hear it
all, for I guess it would please you.'

'How do you use it?' I asked.

'Well, I get early noos of what is going on in this cabbage-patch.
Likewise I get authentic noos of the rest of Europe, and I can send a
message to Mr X. in Petrograd and Mr Y. in London, or, if I wish, to
Mr Z. in Noo York. What's the matter with that for a post-office?
I'm the best informed man in Constantinople, for old General Liman only
hears one side, and mostly lies at that, and Enver prefers not to
listen at all. Also, I could give them points on what is happening at
their very door, for our friend Sandy is a big boss in the best-run
crowd of mountebanks that ever fiddled secrets out of men's hearts.
Without their help I wouldn't have cut much ice in this city.'

'I want you to tell me one thing, Blenkiron,' I said. 'I've been
playing a part for the past month, and it wears my nerves to tatters.
Is this job very tiring, for if it is, I doubt I may buckle up.'

He looked thoughtful. 'I can't call our business an absolute rest-cure
any time. You've got to keep your eyes skinned, and there's always the
risk of the little packet of dynamite going off unexpected. But as
these things go, I rate this stunt as easy. We've only got to be
natural. We wear our natural clothes, and talk English, and sport a
Teddy Roosevelt smile, and there isn't any call for theatrical talent.
Where I've found the job tight was when I had got to be natural, and my
naturalness was the same brand as that of everybody round about, and
all the time I had to do unnatural things. It isn't easy to be going
down town to business and taking cocktails with Mr Carl Rosenheim, and
next hour being engaged trying to blow Mr Rosenheim's friends
sky--high. And it isn't easy to keep up a part which is clean outside
your ordinary life. I've never tried that. My line has always been to
keep my normal personality. But you have, Major, and I guess you found
it wearing.'

'Wearing's a mild word,' I said. 'But I want to know another thing.
It seems to me that the line you've picked is as good as could be. But
it's a cast-iron line. It commits us pretty deep and it won't be a
simple job to drop it.'

'Why, that's just the point I was coming to,' he said. 'I was going to
put you wise about that very thing. When I started out I figured on
some situation like this. I argued that unless I had a very clear part
with a big bluff in it I wouldn't g