I ventured a query.
"How did St. Alban come to be on the hospital transport?" I said.
"Was he in the English army in France?"
"Oh, no," he said. "When the war opened St. Alban was in the
Home Office, and, he set out to make England spy-proof. He
organized the Confidential Department, and he went to work to
take every precaution. He wasn't a great man in any direction,
but he was a careful, thorough man. And with tireless,
never-ceasing, persistent effort, he very nearly swept England
clean of German espionage."
Sir Henry spoke with vigor and decision.
"Now, that's what St. Alban did in England - not because he was a
man of any marked ability, but because he was a persistent person
dominated by a single consuming idea. He started out to rid
England of every form of espionage. And when he had accomplished
that, as the cases of Ernest, Lody, and Schultz eloquently
attest, he determined to see that every move of the English
expeditionary force on the Continent should be guarded from
German espionage."
Sir Henry paused and poured out a cup of tea. He tasted it. It
was cold, and he put the cup down on the table.
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