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Stanislas McKay was a traitor and the son of a traitor; he had been actually taken red-handed in a new and still deeper treachery, and he must suffer for his crime. At the end of the first fortnight McKay's relations and friends in England had almost abandoned hope. This was what Mr. Faulks told Mrs. Wilders, who called every day two or three times, always in the deepest distress.
Faulks very blandly; but his blood was boiling at the indignity of being lectured thus by a young man altogether new to the office. "It is all in this morning's Times. The siege is at a standstill; the fuzes won't fit the shells. There are plenty of 10-inch fuzes, but only 13-inch shells. Who is to blame for that?" "Our ordnance branch, I fear.
"You will get the rations within twenty-four hours, notice or no notice. But we will discuss that by-and-by. Meanwhile, hurry off to the ordnance branch." Mr. Faulks went to the door, protesting and muttering to himself. "Stay! one word more! It is wrong of me, perhaps, to hint that your zeal requires any stimulus, Mr. Faulks." "Hardly, I hope.
The good ship Burlington Castle, Bartholomew Faulks, master, having filled up its complement of invalids and wounded men, including Captain Stanislas McKay, steamed westward about the middle of July. Ledantec, alias Hobson, had at once reported progress to Mrs. Wilders. The day after his arrival in Paris she had heard from him. He wrote "Have no fears. The police are on his track.
Faulks, with a deep sigh. "I often feel that life is hardly worth having." "The public service is no bed of roses," remarked Mrs. Jones. "It killed my poor dear husband." "It is so disheartening to slave day after day as you do," went on Mrs. Wilders to Mr. Faulks, "and get no thanks." "Very much the other thing!" cried Mr.
"I shall come when I choose in the middle of the night, if it suits me or is necessary, as is more than probable in these busy times." Mr. Faulks waved his hands and bowed stiffly, as much as to say that Sir Humphrey was master of his actions, but that he need not expect to see him. "You all want stirring up here," said Sir Humphrey abruptly. "It is high time to give you a fillip."
He had no one over him now but the statesman who, for the time being, was responsible for the department in Parliament a mere politician, perfectly raw in official routine, who had the good taste and better sense to surrender himself blindly to the guidance of Mr. Faulks. What could a bird of passage know of the deep mysteries of procedure it took a life-time to learn?
"I will go down to her at once, say." And, seizing his hat, Mr. Faulks followed the messenger into the street, where he found Mrs. Wilders in her tiny brougham, at the door of the office. "Oh, how good of you!" she said, putting out a little hand in a perfectly-fitting grey glove. "I would not disturb you for worlds, but I was so anxious." "What has happened? Nothing serious, I trust?"
"Not if you go the right way to work. A woman of your attractions, your cleverness, ought to be able to twist any man round her finger. You have done it often enough already, goodness knows. Now, there's old Faulks; when did you see him last?" "Not a week ago." "And you got nothing out of him? I thought he was devoted to you." "He is most attentive, most obliging, but still exceedingly wary.
Rufus Faulks, brother to the Captain Faulks we met on board the Burlington Castle, and also uncle to Stanislas McKay. Mr. Faulks had entered the office as a lad, and, after long years of patient service, had worked his way up through all the grades to the very top of the permanent staff.
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