Anthony Cade—Jimmy McGrath

Anthony Cade and Jimmy McGrath are friends bound by a commission that becomes the hidden thread running through the political intrigue: McGrath entrusts Cade with Count Stylptitch’s memoirs, and Cade protects both the manuscript and his friend’s interests until McGrath comes to England to help. Their relationship rests on practical trust rather than ceremony; at the end, Cade hands McGrath the genuine manuscript and the publishing errand, returning the responsibility to the man who gave it to him.

The Commission and Its Risks

McGrath’s trust in Cade begins with the delivery of Count Stylptitch’s manuscript to England. When Cade later explains the job to Virginia Revel, he recounts the last six weeks of his life without the editing he had previously required. The commission is part of that account: it has drawn him into a sequence of dangers in which the memoirs matter not only as a publishing job but as material people are prepared to steal.

McGrath’s own story explains why the manuscript carries such risks. In Paris, he rescued Count Stylptitch from a gang of Apaches, doing so at considerable risk to himself. The Count was exhilarated and made two remarks that McGrath scarcely attended to at the time: he claimed to know where the Kohinoor was, and said that the gang were King Victor’s men. Cade later connects these details for the detectives. Superintendent Battle recognizes that they alter the apparent significance of Prince Michael’s murder, while the French detective observes that King Victor has never taken a life. McGrath’s brief encounter with the Count thus supplies a consequential clue, even though McGrath had not initially treated the remarks as important.

Trust Under Pressure

The job proves larger than McGrath first understood. After his expedition into the interior fails, men arrive seeking to buy the manuscript; one night, McGrath narrowly escapes being stabbed in the back. The attack makes him realize that he has given Cade a more dangerous task than he knew. Rather than remain away, he follows Cade to England on the next boat, intending to help if needed.

When the two friends meet again, McGrath’s arrival is a relief and a change in the balance of the story: the trusted employer is no longer an absent source of instructions but a present ally. He greets Cade warmly, explains why the attempted attack prompted his journey, and asks whether there is still anything for him to do. Cade’s reply is not to dismiss him from the adventure. Instead, he entrusts him with the final delivery, turning their original arrangement into a renewed act of mutual reliance.

Friendship and Virginia Revel

Cade tells Virginia that he has never thanked her for risking her reputation by claiming to be his old friend. Virginia answers that he is an old friend, and that after helping him with a corpse she would not treat him as a mere acquaintance on their next meeting. Her frank loyalty echoes the trust between Cade and McGrath: in both relationships, friendship is demonstrated through concrete acts when the situation is dangerous or compromising.

McGrath and Virginia quickly establish an easy rapport. Virginia squeezes his arm and praises his kindness; McGrath admits that he had expected her to be a haughty society woman and found her quite different. He tells her that, had he known what she was like, he would have brought the letters to her himself instead of giving them to Cade. His gallantry is playful, but it also shows how the commission has placed him between Cade and Virginia: the letters were part of the same entanglement that brought them together, and McGrath now understands the person caught up in it.

The Manuscript and Its Delivery

Cade sends McGrath to the garage to take a suitable car to London and deliver a paper package to Mr Balderson’s private address at 17 Everdean Square. The publisher is to pay him £1,000. McGrath initially wonders whether the package can be the memoirs, since he had understood that they had been burnt. His surprise reveals the deception Cade has maintained to protect the real manuscript.

Cade explains that the report of the memoirs’ destruction came from a false call. He had contacted the publishers, discovered the deception, and arranged matters accordingly. He prepared a dummy package as directed, handed that substitute over, and placed the genuine manuscript in the manager’s safe; the real memoirs had never left his possession. McGrath’s answer is an approving congratulation, recognizing that Cade has outmaneuvered those seeking the document without abandoning the obligation to deliver it.

The manuscript’s contents make the final decision less politically explosive than Virginia fears. Cade says that he has read it and found Count Stylptitch an insufferably dull writer, absorbed in statecraft rather than indiscreet anecdotes. The Count’s secrecy, he observes, endured to the end: the memoirs contain nothing likely to offend even a sensitive politician. Cade nevertheless refuses to let McGrath down and says he has arranged with Balderson to deliver the manuscript before midnight. With McGrath now present, Cade gives him the real package and leaves him to complete the errand himself. Their friendship ends this strand of the plot not with a rescue or a rupture, but with the original trust fulfilled and the work safely returned to its intended bearer.