Was he really to be asked to collaborate in a revue?
He rang the bell, and a young woman opened the door and barred the way.
"Whom do you wish to see ?" she asked.
"Commodore Graham." "Commodore Graham ?" she repeated with an air of perplexity, as though this was the first time she had ever heard the name.
Across her shoulder Hillyard looked into a broad room, where three other girls sat at desks, and against one wall stood a great bureau with many tiny drawers like pigeon-holes.

Several of these drawers stood open and disclosed cards standing on their edges and packed against each other.
Hillyard's hopes revived.

Not for nothing had he sat from seven to ten in the office of a shipping agent at Alicante.

Here was a card-index, and of an amazing volume.

But his interlocutor still barred the way.
"Have you an appointment with Commodore Graham ?" she asked, still with that suggestion that he had lunched too well and had lost his way.
"No.