Page:Arthur Stringer - The Door of Dread.djvu/26

 you to come back without making it worth while for you. But you know the way things stand with the Administration. You know the Navy people can't afford to let much more of their stuff get out. And when you land your people you'll get your post. That's as sure as taxes and death!"

"You could do it inside of a month," prompted the bland-eyed Wilsnach.

"There are occasions," said the solemn-eyed Kestner, "when a month may seem a very long space of time."

"Isn't an ambassadorship sometimes worth three or four weeks of waiting?" inquired the man at the desk. "I know a few guys who've worked twenty years for 'em!"

"But I'm not working for ambassadorships."

"D' you mean you don't even want one?" was the somewhat acidulated inquiry.

"It's a great honor, and a great opportunity," acknowledged Kestner. "But when I work for my country I don't do it with one hand in the pork-barrel!"

The chief's gesture was one of heavy impatience.

"This thing's already been thought over and talked over. Foreign posts aren't passed around