"Can you tell us how it is that so large a concern is kept so completely secret?"
Here was a poser; but my native impudence and the brandy seemed to come to my aid.
"That is information," I replied, "which I do not feel justified in divulging even here. In withholding it I am acting under the direction of the chief commissioner."
"You are right—perfectly right," said my original friend Petrokine. "You will no doubt make your report to the central office at Moscow before entering into such details."
"Exactly so," I replied, only too happy to get a lift out of my difficulty.
"We have heard," said Alexis, "that you were sent to inspect the Livadia. Can you give us any particulars about it?"
"Anything you ask I will endeavor to answer," I replied, in desperation.
"Have any orders been made in Birmingham concerning it?"
"None when I left England."
"Well, well, there's plenty of time yet," said the man with the beard—"many months. Will the bottom be of wood or iron?"
"Of wood," I answered at random.
"'Tis well!" said another voice. "And what is the breadth of the Clyde below Greenock?"
"It varies much," I replied; "on an average about eighty yards."
