he House were given in anything but a conciliatory tone, and
the method he adopted of "dispatching them in batches like rebels," as
Mr. Chappeldale put it, still further alienated from the Government the
sympathy of the more independent members. In this Mr. Llewellyn John
saw a smouldering menace that might at any time burst into flame.

He had come to wish with deep-rooted earnestness that Sir Roger Flynn
would take a holiday. He had even gone to the length of suggesting
that the Home Secretary was not looking altogether himself; but Sir
Roger had not risen to the bait.

"Ah! here you are," cried Mr. Llewellyn John with a smile, that in no
way mirrored the state of his feelings, as Sir Roger entered, and with
a nod dropped into a chair.

"Eight more questions on the paper," he said grimly. "I suppose you
appreciate the seriousness of it all."

"What would you suggest doing?" enquired Mr. Llewellyn John tactfully.

"Get a new lock for the stable door now the horse is gone," was the
uncompromising retort.

"I've asked Colonel Walton to step round," said Mr. Llewellyn John,
ignoring his colleague's remark.

"It's all that fellow Sage," grumbled Sir Roger. "I went round to see
him yesterday, and he was as urbane as a money-lender."

"But surely you wouldn't quarrel----"

"I always quarrel with a fool who doesn't see the consequences likely
to arise out of his folly," said Sir Roger.

"If he would only play golf," murmured Mr. Llewellyn John plaintively.

"He'd resign at the first green because someone had shouted 'fore.'
The man's a freak!" Sir Roger was very downright this morning.

"I wish we had a few more of the same sort," was Mr. Llewellyn John's
smiling rejoinder.

Sir Roger grumbled something in his throat. Malcolm Sage was too often
in antagonism with his Department for the Home Secretary to contemplate
with anything but alarm a multiplicity of Sages.

Mr. Llewellyn John, who deeply commiserated with those heads of
departments who had suffered from Malcolm Sage's temperament, was
always anxious to keep him from coming into direct touch with other
Ministers: the invariable result was a protest from the Minister, and
resignation from Malcolm Sage.

Once he had been summoned before the War Cabinet to expound and explain
a certain rather complicated enquiry in connection with a missing
code-book. Before he had been in the room five minutes he had resigned.

At Scotland Yard he was known as "S