CHAPTER XXI
Towards three o'clock on the following afternoon, the boisterous windof an uncertain morning settled down to worse things. It tore the sprayfrom the crest of the gathering waves, dashed it even against theFrench windows of Mainsail Haul, and came booming down the open spacescliffwards, like the rumble of some subterranean artillery. A littlegroup of fishermen in oilskins leaned over the railing and discussedthe chances of Ben Oates bringing his boat in safely. Philippa, also,distracted by a curious anxiety, stood before the blurred window,gazing into what seemed almost a grey chaos. "Captain Griffiths, yourladyship."
She turned around quickly at the announcement. Even an unwelcome callerat that moment was almost a relief to her.
"How nice of you to come and see me on such an afternoon, CaptainGriffiths," she exclaimed, as they shook hands. "Helen is over at theCanteen, Nora is hard at work for once in her life, and I seem mostdolefully alone."
Her visitor's reception of Philippa's greeting promised little in theway of enlivenment. He seemed more awkward and ill at ease than ever,and his tone was almost threatening.
"I am very glad to find you alone, Lady Cranston," he said. "I camespecially to have a few words with you on a certain matter."
Her momentary impulse of relief at his visit passed away. There seemedto her something sinister in his manner. She was suddenly conscious thatthere was a new danger to be faced, and that this man's attitude towardsher was, for some reason or other, inimical. After the first shock,however, she prepared herself to do battle.
"Well, you seem very mysterious," she observed. "I haven't broken anylaws, have I? No lights flashing from any of my windows?"
"So far as I am aware, there are no complaints of the sort," theCommandant acknowledged, still speaking with an unnatural restraint. "Mycall, I hope, may be termed, to some extent, at least, a friendly one."
"How nice!" she sighed. "Then you'll have some tea, won't you?"
"Not at present, if you please," he begged. "I have come to talk to youabout Mr. Hamar Lessingham."
"Really?" Philippa exclaimed. "Whatever has that poor man been doingnow."
"Dreymarsh," her visitor proceeded, "having been constituted, during thelast few months, a protected area, it is my duty to examine and enquireinto the business of any stranger who appears here. Mr. Hamar Lessinghamhas been largely accepted without comment, owing to his friendship withyou. I regret to state, however, that certain facts have come to myknowledge which make me wonder whether you yourself may not in somemeasure have been deceived."
"This sounds very ridiculous," Philippa interposed quietly.
"A few weeks ago," Captain Griffith continued, "we received informationthat this neighbourhood would probably be visited by some personconnected with the Secret Service of Germany. There is strong evidencethat the person in question is Mr. Hamar Lessingham."
"A graduate of Magdalen, my brother's intimate friend, and a frequentvisitor at my father's house in Cheshire," Philippa observed, with faintsarcasm.
"The possibility of your having made a mistake, Lady Cranston," CaptainGriffiths rejoined, "has, I must confess, only just occurred to me. Theauthorities at Magdalen College have been appealed to, and no one of thename of Lessingham was there during any one of your brother's terms."
Philippa took the blow well. She simply stared at her caller in anoncomprehending manner.
"We have also information," he continued gravely, "from Wood NortonHall--from your mother, in fact, Lady Cranston--that no college friendof your brother, of that name, has ever visited Wood Norton."
"Go on," Philippa begged, a little faintly. "Did I ever live theremyself? Was Richard ever at Magdalen?"
Captain Griffiths proceeded with the air of a man who has a task tofinish and intends to do so, regardless of interruptions.
"I have had some conversation with Mr. Lessingham, in the course ofwhich I asked him to explain his method of reaching here, and his lasthabitation. He simply fenced with me in the most barefaced fashion. Hepractically declined to give me any account of himself."
Philippa rose and rang the bell.
"I suppose I must give you some tea," she said, "although you seem tohave come here on purpose to make my head ache."
"My object in coming here," Captain Griffiths rejoined, a littlestiffly, "is to save you some measure of personal annoyance."
"Oh, please don't think that I am ungrateful," Philippa begged. "Ofcourse, it is all some absurd mistake, and I'm sure we shall get to thebottom of it presently--Tell me what you think of the storm?" she added,as Mills entered with the tea tray. "Do you think it will get any worse,because I am terrified to death already?"
"I am no judge of the weather here," he confessed. "I believe thefishermen are preparing for something unusual."
She seated herself before the tea tray and insisted upon performingher duties as hostess. Afterwards she laid her hand upon his arm andaddressed him with an air of complete candour.
"Now, Captain Griffiths," she began, "do listen to me. Just one momentof common sense, if you please. What do you suppose there could possiblybe in our harmless seaside village to induce any one to risk his life bycoming here on behalf of the Secret Service of Germany?"
"Dreymarsh," Captain Griffiths replied, "was not made a prohibited areafor nothing."
"But, my dear man, be reasonable," Philippa persisted. "There areperhaps a thousand soldiers in the place, the usual preparations alongthe cliff for coast defence, a small battery of anti-aircraft guns, anda couple of searchlights. There isn't a grocer's boy in the place whodoesn't know all this. There's no concealment about it. You mustadmit that Germany doesn't need to send over a Secret Service agent toacquaint herself with these insignificant facts."
Her visitor smiled very faintly. It was the first time he had relaxedeven so far as this.
"I am not in possession of any information which I can impart to you,Lady Cranston," he said, "but I am not prepared to accept your statementthat Dreymarsh contains nothing of greater interest than the thingswhich you have mentioned."
There was no necessity for Philippa to play a part now. The suggestioncontained in her visitor's words had really left her in a state ofwonder.
"You are making my flesh creep!" she exclaimed. "You don't mean to saythat we have secrets here?"
"I have said the last word which it is possible for me to say upon thesubject," he declared. "You will understand, I am sure, that I am nothere in the character of an inquisitor. I simply thought it my duty, inview of the fact that you had made yourself the social sponsor forMr. Lessingham, to place certain information before you, and to ask,unofficially, of course, if you have any explanation to give? You mayeven," he went on, hesitatingly, "appreciate the motives which led me todo so."
"My dear man, what explanation could I have?" Philippa protested, "it isan absolute and undeniable fact that Mr. Lessingham was at Magdalenwith my brother, and also that he visited us at Wood Norton. I knowboth these things of my own knowledge. The only possible explanation,therefore, is that you have been misinformed."
"Or," Captain Griffiths ventured, "that Mr. Hamar Lessingham in thosedays passed under another name."
"Another name?" Philippa faltered.
"Some such name, perhaps," he continued, "as Bertram Maderstrom."
There was a short silence. Captain Griffiths had leaned back in hischair and was caressing his upper lip. His eyes were fixed upon Philippaand Philippa saw nothing. Her little heel dug hard into the carpet. In afew seconds the room ceased to spin. Nevertheless, her voice sounded toher pitifully inadequate.
"What an absurdity all this is!" she exclaimed.
"Maderstrom," Captain Griffiths said thoughtfully, "was, curiouslyenough, an intimate college friend of your brother's. He was also avisitor at Wood Norton Hall. At neither place is there any trace ofMr. Hamar Lessingham. Perhaps you have made a mistake, Lady Cranston.Perhaps you have recognised the man and failed to remember his name. Ifso, now is the moment to declare i
t."
"I am very much obliged to you," Philippa retorted, "but I have nevermet or heard of this Mr. Maderstrom--"
"Baron Maderstrom," he interrupted.
"Baron Maderstrom, then, in my life; whereas Mr. Lessingham I rememberperfectly."
"I am sorry," Captain Griffiths said, setting down his empty teacup andrising slowly to his feet. "We cannot help one another, then."
"If you want me to transfer Mr. Lessingham, whom I remember perfectly,into a German baron whom I never heard of," Philippa declared boldly, "Iam afraid that we can't."
"Baron Maderstrom was a Swedish nobleman," Captain Griffiths observed.
"Swedish or German, I know nothing of him," Philippa persisted.
"There remains, then, nothing more to be said."
"I am afraid not," Philippa agreed sweetly.
"Under the circumstances," Captain Griffiths asked, "you will not, I amsure, expect me to dine to-night."
"Not if you object to meeting Mr. Hamar Lessingham," Philippa replied.
Her visitor's face suddenly darkened, and Philippa wondered vaguelywhether anything more than professional suspicion was responsiblefor that little storm of passion which for a moment transformed hisappearance. He quickly recovered, however.
"I may still," he concluded, moving towards the door, "be forced topresent myself here in another capacity."