Helped by dear Winston, a personal friend who at a critical point in time held the post of Colonial Secretary, Lawrence was able to "disappear" into curious crevasses: the R.A.F., the Tank Corps, British Intelligence. This chameleon life was part of his sickness and may have included a discreet short assignment in America, accompanied by letters of introduction from Nancy Astor. In America he was linked with an actress, Millicent Molloy, destined for Hollywood immortality.

"Anything is possible," Lawrence wrote to Charlotte Shaw, "when words are the vehicle; and one lie is as good as another."

Karl Voucher has accurately documented many of Ross's movements after the war and his return to England, pointing up the inconsistencies of dating and hiatal periods. Jeremy Wilson of course has the last "authorized" word: but Palmer and Pike, for example, are shadow figures in his account; there is no period in which Lawrence - Ross, Shaw - was not under scrutiny. However, as Trebisch Lincoln pointed out in 1928, that scrutiny was often pockmarked with secrets. "There is no reason." he wrote, "that a man cannot invent a replacement." It might be said that Lawrence invented replacements continually after the Great War.