Michael Kane is an agent with the British Secret Service.
He answers to a man we firmly believe is Peter Quayle though we only are told of that boss's first name. His ad hoc partner in the four recorded adventures we have of him, Ernie Guelvada, will later be shown to definitely work for Quayle but when we observe Kane in action, his director is unclear. What is not unclear is his determination to follow the instructions of this man to the best of his abilities and as we will observe, those abilities are impressive. Not the least of them, though, is the ability to keep Guelvada from unleashing his decidedly homicidal tendencies - well, most of the time.
A fascinating statement we are told right away says a good deal about Kane: "'The British, once they take the gloves off - once they forget to play cricket, to be English gentlemen - they are the toughest things on earth,' says one German espionage agent to another. And the trouble with Michael Kane is that he never plays cricket with Nazi spies . . ."
"He was tall and slim. But his shoulders were good and his hips very narrow. He appeared lithe. He moved as if he were putting very little energy into the process; as if he could produce much more vitality if necessary. His hands were peculiarly long, narrow and compact for so large a man, and his feet were small. He looked like a man who would be able to dance the tango very well . . . to do most things well . . . if he wanted to.
"The sensitive mouth, the humorous and Celtic cut of the cheekbones, the set of the lips, indicated that he was not wanting in humor. Yet this attribute stayed with the lower part of his face. Above the cheekbones and nose-which was long and quivered at the end when he smiled, so that you wanted to look at it all the time, especially if you were a woman - there appeared a peculiar indefinable grimness. Not a definite grimness associated with a heavy type of face, but something fleeting; certainly not permanent. Directly you had assured yourself that it was there it disappeared and the brow opened and the eyes smiled, and you believed you were wrong. You were . . . but not the way you thought."
"If you had been watching Kane you would have decided, if you were a man, that you liked him. And if you were a woman, that you liked him, but that you wouldn't take many chances about it. Not too many." If you were an enemy, you might not get long to come to an opinion.
It is interesting that at 38 years old, Kane is already pondering whether he had stayed in the kind of work he did too long. Then again, he thinks, what else would he do?