My errand here last night was indiscreet enough, but I certainly shouldn't have brought another man, especially a stranger, with me." "Thank you," Major Thomson concluded, "that is all I have to say to you for the present." "Has there been much damage done ?" Granet inquired.
"Very little." They had reached the corner of the avenue.

Granet glanced down towards the road.
"I presume," he remarked, "that I am at liberty to depart ?" Thomson gave a brief order to the soldier who had been attending them.
"You will find the car in which you came waiting to take you back, Captain Granet," he announced.
The two men had paused.

Granet was on the point of departure.

With the passing of his sudden apprehension of danger, his curiosity was awakened.
"Do you mind telling me, Major Thomson," he asked, "how it is that you, holding, I presume, a medical appointment, were selected to conduct an inquiry like this?
I have voluntarily submitted myself to your questioning, but if I had had anything to conceal I might have been inclined to dispute your authority." Thomson's face was immovable.

He simply pointed to the gate at the end of the avenue.
"If it had been necessary, Captain Granet," he said coldly, "I should have been able to convince you that I was acting under authority.