had done
him a great service, perhaps saved him from a serious political
set-back. Incidentally he discovered that Sage was a very uneasy
person to have in a Government-department. Sage cared nothing for
tradition, discipline, or bureaucracy. If they interfered with the
proper performance of his duties, overboard they went. He was the most
transferred man in Whitehall. No one seemed to want to keep him for
longer than the period necessary for the formalities of his transfer.

"Uneasy lies the Head that has a Sage," was a phrase some wag had
coined. If a man wanted to condemn another as too zealous,
unnecessarily hard-working, or as a breaker of idols, he likened him to
Sage.

The chief of the department from which Mr. Llewellyn John took Malcolm
Sage when Department Z. was formed is said to have wept tears of joy at
the news. For months he had striven to transfer his unconventional
subordinate; but there was none who would have him. This unfortunate
chief of department had gone through life like a man wanting to sell a
dog of dubious pedigree. In the Ministry he was known as Henry II, and
Sage came to be referred to as Beckett.

In Department Z. Sage found his proper niche. Under Colonel Walton, a
man of few words and great tact, he had found an ideal chief, one who
understood how to handle men.

As John Dene had left 110, Downing Street, with Sir Lyster and Admiral
Heyworth, Mr. Llewellyn John had rung up Colonel Walton and requested
that full enquiries be made at once as to John Dene of Toronto, and a
report submitted to him in the morning. That was all. He had given no
indication of why he wanted to know, or what was John Dene's business
in London.

Hardly a day of his life passed without Mr. Llewellyn John having cause
to be thankful for the inspiration that had resulted in the founding of
Department Z. Nothing seemed to come amiss, either to the Department
or its officials. They never required an elaborate filling-up of
forms, they never asked for further particulars as did other
departments. They just got to work.

Mr. Llewellyn John had, once and for all, defined Department Z. when he
said to Mr. Thaw, "If I were to ask Scotland Yard if Chappeldale had
gone over to the Bolshevists, or if Waytensee had become an Orangeman,
they would send a man here, his pockets bulging with note-books.
Department Z. would tell me all I wanted to know in a few hours."

In his first interview with Mr. Llewe