The energetic young man had succeeded in making the lives of several Scotland Yard men unbearable to them , and the telephone girls at the Admiralty had learned to know and dread the familiar " Hullo ! " He had spent three hours in Paris hustling the Prefecture , and had returned from there imbued with the idea , possibly inspired by a weary French official , that the true clue to the mystery was to be found in Ireland .
The lives of several Scotland Yard men had been made incredibly difficult by the young man .