Grey was silent.  The older man said, “I permit myself to hope we may meet some time under more pleasant circumstances—­for me, I mean,”—­he added, laughing.  “Good-night.”

Penhallow withdrew quickly and found Josiah on guard.  He said, “It is all right—­but for sport it beats possum-hunting.  Open the door.”  The rain was still falling in torrents.  “All right,” he said to the policeman, “come and see me to-morrow early.”

“What was the matter, sir?  I’ve got to make my report.”

Then Penhallow saw the possibility of trouble and as quickly that to bribe further might only make mischief.  “Do not come to the hotel, but at eleven sharp call on me at the War Department on Seventeenth Street.  You have my card.  By that time I shall have talked the matter over with the Secretary.  I am not at liberty to talk of it now—­and you had better not.  It is a Government affair.  You go off duty, when?”

“At six.  You said eleven, sir?”

“Yes, good-night.  Go home, Josiah.”

The Colonel was so wet that the added contributions of water were of no moment.  The soldier in uniform may not carry an umbrella—­for reasons unknown to me.

Before breakfast next morning Josiah brought him a letter, left at the hotel too late in the night for delivery.  He read it with some amusement and with an uncertain amount of satisfaction: 

“MY DEAR J:  When by evil luck I encountered you, I was sure of three things.  First, that I was safe; then, that we had secured what we wanted; and last, that our way home was assured.  If in my satisfaction I played the bluff game rather lightly—­well, in a way to annoy you—­I beg now to apologize.  That I should so stupidly have given away a game already won is sufficiently humiliating, and the dog on top may readily forgive.  You spoilt a gallant venture, but, by Jove, you did it well!  I can’t imagine how you found me!  Accept my congratulations.

“Yours sincerely,

“G.”

“Confound him!  What I suffered don’t count.  He’s just the man he always was—­brave, of course, quixotically chivalrous, a light weight.  Ann used to say he was a grown-up boy and small for his age.  Well, he has had his spanking.  Confound him!” He went on thinking of this gay, clever, inconsiderate, not unlovable man.  “If by mishap he were captured while trying to escape, what then?  He would be fool enough to make the venture in our uniform.  There would be swift justice; and only the final appeal to Caesar.  He was with good reason ill at ease.  I might indeed have to ask the President for something.”

He reconsidered his own relation to the adventure as he sat at breakfast, and saw in it some remainder of danger.  At ten o’clock he was with the Secretary.

“I want,” he said, “to talk to you as my old friend.  You are my official superior and may order me to the North Pole, but now may I re-assume the other position for a minute and make a confidential statement?”