Anything else?"
"Indeed," said Colonel Grant, "I have kept the best for the last."
And unfolding yet another document, he placed it in the hands of
the Commander-in-Chief. It was Lord Liverpool's note of the troops
to be embarked for Lisbon in June and July - the note abstracted
from the dispatch carried by Captain Garfield.
His lordship's lips tightened as he considered it. "His death was
timely indeed, damned timely; and the man who killed him deserves
to be mentioned in dispatches. Nothing else, I suppose?"
"The rest is of little consequence, sir."
"Very well." He rose. "You will leave these with me, and the
wallet as well, if you please. I am on my way to confer with the
members of the Council of Regency, and I am glad to go armed with
so stout a weapon as this. Whatever may be the ultimate finding of
the court-martial, the present assumption must be that Samoval met
the death of a spy caught in the act, as you suggested. That is
the only conclusion the Portuguese Government can draw when I lay
these papers before it. They will effectively silence all protests."
"Shall I tell O'Moy?" inquired the colonel.
"Oh, certainly," answered his lordship, instantly to change his
mind.
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