Of course you really don't mean anything of the sort.

By virtue of some special and inside knowledge of certain facts communicated to the Home Secretary, you may have persuaded him to promise that, provided the ends of justice are not defeated thereby, every precaution will be taken to keep the main lines of the inquiry secret until the whole position can be laid before the law officers of the Crown.

The Home Secretary may have gone that far, Mr.Forbes, but not one inch farther, and you know it." The two antagonists, so singularly disproportionate in size, were yet so perfectly matched in the vastly more important qualities of brain and nerve that the contest lost all sense of inequality.

Theydon felt himself of no account in this duel.

He was like an urchin watching open-mouthed a combat of gladiators.
Forbes, not without a perceptible effort, choked down his wrath and recovered his poise.
"You have gaged the state of affairs accurately enough," he said, speaking more calmly.