My God! If I had a free hand for ten minutes, there'd be two Cabinet Ministers eating bread and water instead of their dinners to-night." The General raised his eyebrows.

He knew Thomson well enough to be aware how unusual such an ebullition of feeling on his part was.
"Got you a bit worked up, Major," he remarked.
"Isn't it enough to make any man's blood boil ?" the other replied.
"The country to-day looks to its army and its navy to save it from the humiliation these black-coated parasites have encouraged, and yet even now we haven't a free hand.

You and I, who control the secret service of the army, denounce certain men, upon no slight evidence, either, as spies, and we are laughed at! One of those very blatant idiots whose blundering is costing the country millions of money and thousands of brave men, has still enough authority to treat our reports as so much waste paper." "I am bound to say I agree with you, Thomson," the General declared, a little hopelessly.

"It's the weakest spot of our whole organisation, this depending on the civil powers.

Two of my cases were absolutely flagrant.