"They are in earnest, and taking no chances of having their purpose guessed at.

There is a way to reach them, if the one answering is sufficiently in earnest.
By Jove, I don't see how any one can get in bad, merely by finding out what it all means." "Well, do as you please; you would anyhow.

Only you have my advice." West read the item again.

He had been eighteen months in France, and his discharge from the army had left him bored and dissatisfied with the dull routine of civil life.

He dreaded to get back into the harness of a prosaic existence; even his profession as a civil engineer had someway lost its charm.