In him two
men were constantly warring, the Irishman, eager for romance yet
too indolent to go out in search of it, and the Englishman,
cautious yet intensely vital withal, courting danger for danger's
sake.
All his ill-humor of the morning at being snatched away from his
work in France had evaporated. In the Chief he now saw only the
magician who was about to unlock to him the realms of Adventure.
Desmond's eyes shone with excitement as the other, obviously
simmering with satisfaction, lit another cigarette and began to
speak.
"The British public, Okewood," he said, hitching his chair
closer, "would like to see espionage in this country rendered
impossible. Such an ideal state of things is, unfortunately out
of the question. Quite on the contrary, this country of ours is
honeycombed with spies. So it will ever be, as long as we have to
work with natural means: at present we have no caps of
invisibility or magician's carpets available.
"As we cannot hope to kill the danger, we do our best to scotch
it. Personally, my modest ambition is to make espionage as
difficult as possible for the enemy by knowing as many as
possible of his agents and their channels of communication, and
by keeping him happy with small results, to prevent him from
finding out the really important things, the disclosure of which
would inevitably compromise our national safety.
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