On the other hand it was his duty, as an experienced regular officer, to do the best he could in any situation to which his profession had called him; and one could not, after all, go far wrong if one worked really hard and took pains to obey orders. He found it difficult, especially in so complicated a business as this Montagne affair, to follow at short notice such a gifted and, he feared, irresponsible amateur as Guy Furney. Rains did not complain—the first duty of a staffofficer was to be able to take over from anybody anywhere—but Guy’s handling of the office had been eccentric. The files were excellent and comprehensive, but it wasn’t much help to read through the utterly damning dossier of some prominent Arab politician and to find at the end a short minute: “This is tripe. I know him. G.F.” Furney’s personal opinions carried no authority, and were destructive of all system. Both he and the Field Security seemed to have taken their obligations much too casually.
