Such an office was not easily found.

There is little law business in Central Asia, and at this moment there was not enough to require a special agent in Australia.

Carrington could hardly be induced to lead an expedition to the sources of the Nile in search of business merely to please Mr.
Ratcliffe, nor could the State Department offer encouragement to a hope that government would pay the expenses of such an expedition.

The best that Ratcliffe could do was to select the place of counsel to the Mexican claims-commission which was soon to meet in the city of Mexico, and which would require about six months' absence.

By a little management he could contrive to get the counsel sent away in advance of the commission, in order to work up a part of the case on the spot.
Ratcliffe acknowledged that Mexico was too near, but he drily remarked to himself that if Carrington could get back in time to dislodge him after he had once got a firm hold on Mrs.Lee, he would never try to run another caucus.
The point once settled in his own mind, Ratcliffe, with his usual rapidity of action, carried his scheme into effect.