one U-boat commander who, returning to the home port after a conspicuously successful cruise, had been taken ashore in a strait-jacket.
Lanyard himself did not care to dwell upon those scenes which must have been enacted on board the Assyrian after the torpedo struck. …
Deliberately ignoring all else, he set himself the task of reviewing those events which had led up to his going overboard.
One by one he considered the incidents of that night, painstakingly dissected them, examined their every phase in minute analysis, weighing for ulterior meaning every word uttered in his presence, harking even farther back to reconstruct his acquaintance with each actor from the very moment of its inception, seeking that hint which he was convinced must be somewhere hidden in the history of the affair, waiting only recognition to lead straightway out of this gloomy maze of mystery into a sunlit open of understanding.
In vain: there was an ambiguity in that business to baffle the keenest and most pertinacious investigation.
The conduct of Cecelia Brooke alone bristled with inconsistencies inexplicable, the conduct of the German spies no less.
To get better perspective upon the problem, he reduced the premises to their barest summary:
A valuable dossier brought on board the Assyrian (no matter by whom) had come into the possession of British agents, with the knowledge of Captain Osborne. Thackeray had secreted it in that fraudulent bandage. German agents, apparently under the leadership of
