"Anne Wellington, so the _Saunterer_ says."
Armitage turned quickly upon his friend and brother officer.
"Anne, nothing!" he fairly snarled. "I remember about Koltsoff now. Worcester was once _attaché_ at St. Petersburg and told me all about him last summer. He 's just a plain, ordinary, piking crook. But he 's up against the wrong kind of diplomacy this time. I 'll get him before he leaves Newport and choke that magnetic control out of him. Come over to the _D'Estang_ a minute, Joe; I want to show you something. . . . Well, Mr. Jackson, cleaned out? I thought so. Thank you, I am going to be away for a few days. Don't let anything be touched, please. Let the work stop until I return. Come on, Joe."
In his cabin on the _D'Estang_, Armitage pointed to several more or less disreputable garments lying on his berth.
"Say," he said, "would a candidate for physical instructor for the Wellington boys wear such clothes?"
Thornton looked hard at his friend for a minute and then his face broadened into a huge smile of understanding. "Not if he wanted the job," he said. "You 'll make more of a hit as you are."
"All right, and now, Joe, go into the yeoman's office like a good chap, pick out a time-stained sheet of paper and typewrite a letter, signing your name as captain of the 19-- football eleven at Annapolis, saying that the bearer, Jack--Jack--who?"
"Yes, McCall--saying that Jack McCall had given great satisfaction as trainer for the eleven and was honest and God-fearing; you know how to do it."
"All right," said Thornton, starting for the door. He paused in the corridor. "Say, Jack, do you know you're taking all this mighty light?" He frowned. "This is serious."
"I know, but I 'll be serious enough before it's over, I reckon."
"You will," said Thornton dryly. "How do you expect to get the job anyway?"
"Leave that to me," he said. "Oh, Joe, are you going to be on the island for supper?"
"No--not for supper," he said. "I 'll be over from Newport about eleven o'clock though."
"All right, drop aboard then, will you? I want to see you."
For some time after his departure Armitage sat writing a document, covering the case to date, outlining his plans, his suspicions and the like. It turned out to be lengthy. He sealed it in an envelope, labelled it, "Armitage vs. Koltsoff," and locked it in a small safe in the yeoman's room.