CHAPTER XIX
Lessingham sat upon a fallen tree on Dutchman's Common near the sceneof his romantic descent, and looked rather ruefully over the moorland,seawards. Above him, the sky was covered with little masses of quicklyscudding clouds. A fugitive and watery sunshine shone feebly upon awind-tossed sea and a rain-sodden landscape. He found a certain grimsatisfaction in comparing the disorderliness of the day with the tumultin his own life. He felt that he had embarked upon an enterprise greaterthan his capacity, for which he was in many ways entirely unsuitable.And behind him was the scourge of the telegram which he had received afew hours ago, a telegram harmless enough to all appearance, but which,decoded, was like a scourge to his back.
Your work is unsatisfactory and your slackness deserves reprobation.Great events wait upon you. The object of your search is necessary forour imminent operations.
The sound of a horse's hoofs disturbed him. Captain Griffiths, on agreat bay mare, glanced curiously at the lonely figure by the roadside,and then pulled up.
"Back again, Mr. Lessingham?" he remarked.
"As you see."
The Commandant fidgeted with his horse for a moment. Then he approacheda little nearer to Lessingham's side.
"You are a good walker, I perceive, Mr. Lessingham," he remarked.
"When the fancy takes me," was the equable reply.
"Have you come out to see our new guns?"
"I had no idea," Lessingham answered indifferently, "that you had any."
Griffiths smiled.
"We have a small battery of anti-aircraft guns, newly arrived fromthe south of England," he said. "The secret of their coming and theirlocality has kept the neighbourhood in a state of ferment for the lastweek."
Lessingham remained profoundly uninterested.
"They most of them spotted the guns," his companion continued, "but notmany of them have found the searchlights yet."
"It seems a little late in the year," Lessingham observed, "to be makingpreparations against Zeppelins."
"Well, they cross here pretty often, you know," Griffiths reminded him."It's only a matter of a few weeks ago that one almost came to griefon this common. We picked up their observation car not fifty yards fromwhere you are sitting."
"I remember hearing about it," Lessingham acknowledged.
"By-the-by," the Commandant continued, smoothing his horse's neck,"didn't you arrive that evening or the evening after?"
"I believe I did."
"Liverpool Street or King's Cross? The King's Cross train was verynearly held up."
"I didn't come by train at all," Lessingham replied, glancing for amoment into the clouds, "And now I come to think of it, it must havebeen the evening after."
"Fine county for motoring," Griffiths continued, stroking his horse'shead.
"The roads I have been on seem very good," was the somewhat boredadmission.
"You haven't a car of your own here, have you?"
"Not at present."
Captain Griffiths glanced between his horse's ears for a few moments.Then he turned once more towards his companion.
"Mr. Lessingham," he said, "you are aware that I am Commandant here?"
"I believe," Lessingham replied, "that Lady Cranston told me so."
"It is my duty, therefore," Griffiths went on, "to take a little morethan ordinary interest in casual visitors, especially at this timeof the year. The fact that you are well-known to Lady Cranston is, ofcourse, an entirely satisfactory explanation of your presence here.At the same time, there is certain information concerning strangers ofwhich we keep a record, and in your case there is a line or two which wehave not been able to fill up."
"If I can be of any service," Lessingham murmured.
"Precisely," the other interrupted. "I knew you would feel like that.Now your arrival here--we have the date, I think--October 6th. As youhave just remarked, you didn't come by train. How did you come?"
Lessingham's surprise was apparently quite genuine.
"Is that a question which you ask me to answer--officially?" heenquired.
His interlocutor shrugged his shoulders.
"I am not putting official questions to you at all," he replied, "noram I cross-examining you, as might be my duty, under the circumstances,simply because your friendship with the Cranstons is, of course, aguarantee as to your position. But on the other hand, I think it wouldbe reasonable if you were to answer my question."
Lessingham nodded.
"Perhaps you are right," he admitted. "As you can tell by finding mehere this afternoon, I am a great walker. I arrived--on foot."
"I see," Griffiths reflected. "The other question which we usually askis, where was your last stopping place?"
"Stopping place?" Lessingham murmured.
"Yes, where did you sleep the night before you came here?" Griffithspersisted.
Lessingham shook his head as though oppressed by some distastefulmemory.
"But I did not sleep at all," he complained. "It was one of the worstnights which I have ever spent in my life."
Captain Griffiths gathered up his reins.
"Well," he said with clumsy sarcasm, "I am much obliged to you, Mr.Lessingham, for the straight-forward way in which you have answered myquestions. I won't bother you any more just at present. Shall I see youto-morrow night at Mainsail Haul?"
"Lady Cranston has asked me to dine," was the somewhat reserved reply.
His inquisitor nodded and cantered away. Lessingham looked after himuntil he had disappeared, then he turned his face towards Dreymarsh andwalked steadily into the lowering afternoon. Twilight was falling ashe reached Mainsail Haul, where he found Philippa entertaining somecallers, to whom she promptly introduced him. Lessingham gathered,almost in the first few minutes, that his presence in Dreymarsh wasbecoming a subject of comment.
"My husband has played bridge with you at the club, I think," a ladyby whose side he found himself observed. "You perhaps didn't hear myname--Mrs. Johnson?"
"I congratulate you upon your husband," Lessingham replied. "I rememberhim perfectly well because he kept his temper when I revoked."
"Dear me!" she exclaimed. "He must have taken a fancy to you, then. As arule, they rather complain about him at bridge."
"I formed the impression," Lessingham continued, "that he was rather abetter player than the majority of the performers there."
Mrs. Johnson, who was a dark and somewhat forbidding-looking lady,smiled.
"He thinks so, at any rate," she conceded. "Didn't he tell me that youwere invalided home from the front?"
Lessingham shook his head.
"I am quite sure that it was not mentioned," he said. "We walked hometogether as far as the hotel one evening, but we spoke only of the golfand some shooting in the neighbourhood."
Philippa, who had been maneuvering to attract Lessingham's attention,suddenly dropped the cake basket which she was passing. There was alittle commotion. Lessingham went down on his hands and knees to helpcollect the fragments, and she found an opportunity to whisper in hisear.
"Be careful. That woman is a cat. Stay and talk to me. Please don'tbother, Mr. Lessingham. Won't you ring the bell instead?" she continued,raising her voice.
Lessingham did as he was asked, and affected not to notice Mrs.Johnson's inviting smile as he returned. Philippa made room for him byher side.
"Helen and I were talking this afternoon, Mr. Lessingham," she said, "ofthe days when you and Dick were both in the Magdalen Eleven and bothhad just a chance of being chosen for the Varsity. You never played, didyou?"
He shook his head.
"No such luck. In any case, Richard would have been in well before me. Ialways maintained that he was the first of our googlie bowlers."
"So you were at Magdalen with Major Felstead?" another caller remarkedin mild wonder.
"Mr. Lessingham and my brother were great friends," Philippa explained."Mr. Lessingham used to come down to shoot in Cheshire."
Lady Cranston's guests were al
l conscious of a little indefinabledisappointment. The gossip concerning this stranger's appearance inDreymarsh was practically strangled. Mrs. Johnson, however, fired aparting shot as she rose to go.
"You were not in the same regiment as Major Felstead, were you, Mr.Lessingham?" she asked. "No," he answered calmly.
Philippa was busy with her adieux. Mrs. Johnson remained indomitable.
"What was your regiment, Mr. Lessingham?" she persisted. "You mustforgive my seeming inquisitive, but I am so interested in militaryaffairs."
Lessingham bowed courteously.
"I do not remember alluding to my soldiering at all," he said coolly,"but as a matter of fact I am in the Guards."
Mrs. Johnson accepted Philippa's hand and the inevitable. Her good-by toLessingham was most affable. She walked up the road with the vicar.
"I think, Vicar," she said severely, "that for a small place, Dreymarshis becoming one of the worst centres of gossip I ever knew. Every onehas been saying all sorts of unkind things about that charming Mr.Lessingham, and there you are--Major Felstead's friend and a Guardsman!Somehow or other, I felt that he belonged to one of the crack regiments.I shall certainly ask him to dinner one night next week."
The vicar nodded benignly. He had the utmost respect for Mrs. Johnson'scook, and his own standard of social desirability, to which the objectof their discussion had attained.
"I should be happy to meet Mr. Lessingham at any time," he pronounced,with ample condescension. "I noticed him in church last Sunday morning."