Two
“Major Glydr?” Jessop hesitated a little over the name.
“It is difficult, yes.” The visitor spoke¹ with humorous appreciation².
“Your compatriots, they have called me Glider³ in the war. And now, in theStates, I shall change my name to Glyn, which is more convenient for all.”
“You come from the States now?”
“Yes, I arrived a week ago. You are—excuse me—Mr. Jessop?”
“I’m Jessop.”
The other looked at him with interest.
“So,” he said. “I have heard of you.”
“Indeed? From whom?”
The other smiled.
“Perhaps we go too fast. Before you permit that I should ask you somequestions, I present you first this letter from the U.S. Embassy.”
He passed it with a bow. Jessop took it, read the few lines of polite intro-duction, put it down. He looked appraisingly⁴ at his visitor. A tall man, car-rying himself rather stiffly, aged⁵ thirty or thereabouts. The fair hair wasclose cropped in the continental⁶ fashion. The stranger’s speech was slowand careful with a very definite foreign intonation⁷, though grammaticallycorrect. He was, Jessop noticed, not at all nervous or unsure of himself.
That in itself was unusual. Most of the people who came into this officewere nervous or excited or apprehensive⁸. Sometimes they were shifty,sometimes violent.
This was a man who had complete command of himself, a man with apoker face who knew what he was doing and why, and who would not beeasily tricked or betrayed into saying more than he meant to say. Jessopsaid pleasantly:
“And what can we do for you?”
“I came to ask if you had any further news of Thomas Betterton, whodisappeared recently in what seems a somewhat

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