CHAPTER XVI

Mr. William Hayter, in the solitude of his chambers at the Milan Court, was a very altered personage. He extended no welcoming salutation to his midnight visitor but simply motioned him to a chair.

"Well," he began, "is your task finished that you are in London?"

"My task," Lessingham replied, "might just as well never have been entered upon. The man you sent me to watch is nothing but an ordinary sport-loving Englishman."

"Really! You have lived as his neighbour for nearly a month, and that is your impression of him?"

"It is," Lessingham assented. "He has been away sea-fishing, half the time, but I have searched his house thoroughly."

"Searched his papers, eh?"

"Every one I could find, and hated the job. There are a good many charts of the coast, but they are all for the use of the fishermen."

"Wonderful!" Hayter scoffed. "My young friend, you may yet find distinction in some other walk of life. Our secret service, I fancy, will very soon be able to dispense with your energies."

"And I with your secret service," Lessingham agreed heartily. "I dare say there may be some branches of it in which existence is tolerable. That, however, does not apply to the task upon which I have been engaged."

"You have been completely duped," Hayter told him calmly, "and the information you have sent us is valueless. Sir Henry Cranston, instead of being the type of man whom you have described, is one of the greatest experts upon coast defense and mine-laying, in the English Admiralty."

1. What time is it?
2. Who is visiting?
3. Who is being visited?
4. Where are they?
5. Which is where?
6. Was it a warm welcome?
7. Who was being watched?
8. For how long?
9. Is he really good at anything?
10. Anything else?
11. Like what?
12. Did the watcher think this about him?
13. Where did he seem to spend a bunch of his time?
14. Doing what?
15. Was his home looked through?
16. What was found?
17. Of what?

Numbered answers:
1. midnight
2. Lessingham
3. William Hayter
4. Hayter's chambers
5. the Milan Court,
6. No
7. Sir Henry Cranston
8. nearly a month
9. coast defense
10. Yes
11. mine-laying,
12. he is an ordinary sport-loving Englishman
13. at sea
14. fishing
15. Yes
16. charts
17. the coast