Jimmy McGrath

Jimmy McGrath reappears at Chimneys near the close of the story, turning Anthony Cade’s solitary effort into a reunion of old friends. His arrival is more than a personal surprise: he has followed Anthony across the sea because danger surrounding the memoirs convinced him that the commission he had given his friend was more perilous than he first understood. When Anthony puts a parcel and a substantial delivery task into his hands, Jimmy becomes an active participant in the scheme protecting the manuscript.

Identity and Return

Jimmy is Anthony’s well-remembered friend and the person who originally entrusted him with the memoir-related commission. He appears at Chimneys in company with Virginia Revel. Anthony recognizes him with astonishment, while Virginia already seems at ease with him; their reunion quickly establishes that Jimmy has arrived not as a stranger to the household but as someone whose loyalty has brought him into the middle of the adventure.

His return follows a failed journey into the interior. Jimmy reports that the expedition came to nothing, after which men he describes as foreigners approached him seeking to buy the manuscript. One night, he narrowly escaped being stabbed in the back. Those events altered his understanding of the job: he realized he had handed Anthony a larger and more dangerous responsibility than he had known.

Reasons for Following Anthony

Jimmy says that his brush with danger made him think Anthony might need assistance. Rather than leave the matter to his friend, he came after him on the very next boat. The quick decision links their friendship to concrete action: Jimmy does not merely worry about the commission from afar but crosses the distance to provide help when the threat becomes evident.

The account also gives the memoir’s pursuit a wider reach. The attempt to buy the manuscript has followed Jimmy on his expedition, and the near-attack makes clear that the struggle around it is not confined to Anthony’s immediate surroundings. Jimmy’s arrival therefore confirms both the danger of the material and the personal cost of carrying out the commission.

Friendship with Virginia Revel

Virginia welcomes Jimmy warmly. She squeezes his arm and tells Anthony how kind she finds him, while admitting that she had expected something quite different: a grand, haughty society woman is the image Jimmy says he had formed of her. Their quick intimacy overturns both expectations. Jimmy’s account of searching for Anthony brings him into contact with Virginia, and their easy rapport becomes visible to Anthony as soon as the three meet.

Virginia has also heard from Jimmy about the letters. In light of his willingness to act as a knight-errant, she feels almost ashamed that she was not in genuine trouble over them. Jimmy responds gallantly that, had he known what she was like, he would have taken the letters to her himself rather than give them to Anthony. The exchange gives the reunion a light, affectionate counterpoint to the threats and deception surrounding the manuscript.

The Delivery and the Manuscript

Jimmy promptly asks whether the excitement is really over and whether there is anything left for him to do. Anthony answers by going into the house and returning with a paper package, which he casts into Jimmy’s arms. He instructs him to take a likely-looking car from the garage, drive to London, and deliver the parcel to Mr Balderson’s private address at 17 Everdean Square. In return, Balderson will give him £1,000.

Jimmy immediately asks whether the package contains the memoirs, having understood that they had been burned. Anthony reveals the precaution behind the errand: he had called the publishers, discovered that the supposed call reporting the matter was a fake, and arranged accordingly. He had prepared a dummy package as instructed, handed over the decoy, and kept the real package in the manager’s safe. By telling Jimmy that the memoirs have never left his possession, Anthony clarifies that the delivery is part of a deception designed to protect the original, not a transfer of the manuscript itself.

Character and Narrative Role

Jimmy’s brief final appearance completes the commission that set the plot in motion by bringing its original associate into the closing operation. His loyalty is not abstract: the failed expedition, the men seeking to buy the manuscript, and the narrow escape from a knife explain why he comes to Anthony’s aid. At Chimneys, that loyalty is joined to a practical willingness to carry out the last errand, even though the package’s true status is not what he assumes.

The scene also makes friendship part of the story’s resolution. Virginia and Jimmy discover an unexpected affinity, while Anthony can rely on an old companion to take the decoy to London. The parcel itself embodies the plot’s recurring distinction between appearance and reality: Jimmy is entrusted with an apparently decisive delivery, but the genuine memoir remains protected elsewhere. His arrival thus helps close the adventure without undoing the caution that has kept the manuscript in Anthony’s control.