Charles was silent. He had, indeed, outlined his work to Dogson in the first moments of their conversation, and now he could have bitten off his tongue. But how was he to have known what the maniac would do? He waited, miserably, for some crazy scheme to be outlined. His heart pounded savagely.

‘Now, look here,’ said Dogson again. ‘I haven’t got any official backing, you realize that. Left to myself, I couldn’t even get access to the docks when the ships were being unloaded. It would be no use saying that as a member of the public I had a right to keep my eye on the smuggling in of injurious drugs.’

‘Besides,’ Charles put in harshly, ‘you’re not a member of the public. You’re just a news-hound on the trail of a lurid story.’

‘That’s right, insult me,’ said Dogson amiably. ‘You always were a sharp-tongued swine, even at school. But look here, you can see what I’m driving at, can’t you? It would surely be quite easy for you to get me in on your visits to the docks. You could run me down in one of these cars of yours—’

‘Impossible,’ Charles broke in with nervous loudness. ‘We’re strictly forbidden to carry any passengers.’

‘Hell, that means train fares out of my own pocket,’ Dogson sighed. ‘Well, anyway, you just tip me off when you’re going to the docks, and what berth you’re going to and so on, and then I can meet you at the entrance and you can wave your magic wand and get me a pass in.’

He looked like a terrier as he met Charles’s eyes with a frank friendly appeal. Charles crushed out his cigarette and leaned forward.

‘Look,’ he said slowly. ‘I’m very sorry, Harry, but you must get this idea out of your head and keep it out. I can’t get you into the docks, I can’t give you any inside information, I can’t wangle you a ringside seat while the country’s drug traffic is being arranged, in fact I can’t help you with your articles at all. Get it?’

‘No, I damned well don’t get it,’ cried Dogson. ‘For one thing, I don’t see why you need be so bloody emphatic about it. Any-body’d think I was asking you to risk your neck for me, instead of just suggesting that you do me a little favour.’