Telegrams, however, were going out and coming in all day; a whole array of cipherers and decipherers lived in different rookeries in London.

Commodore Graham's activities embraced the high and the narrow seas, great Capitals and little tucked-away towns and desolate stretches of coast where the trade-winds blew.

No doubt full explanations would have led in many cases to more satisfactory conclusions.

But fuller explanations were out of all possibility.

Even with questions fined down to the last succinct syllable the cables groaned.