Affinities and Other Stories

which he coolly took my hand and led the way along the musty hall. Once or twice boards creaked and the two men stopped in alarm. But no one heard. From b

ke this!" I demanded when I c

oad shoulders and struck a match cautiously. Fir

know too much." Then, to Sir George: "I must have taken a wrong turn," he whispered ruef

, for lending myself to it; of Violet, for thrusting the man beside me out of her life and then stooping to borrow his house; of P

r is partly open," I whispered. "We

le object was to get the Prime Minister of Great Britain bac

to go elsewhere. We stood just inside the door, breathing hard, and listened. For a time the sea

s. The furniture was carefully covered, and the carpet had been folded and wrappe

tened. But the search had not penetrated to our wing. Sir George

had taken the right turn. If I remember rightly there was a passage fro

d a man last year." When Sir George heard Poppy's name he began to fumble with the win

lodge somehow. Then, when the motor comes back we could stop it at the gates-have

uable suggestion," he said almost chee

ve for one thing: Mr. Harcourt has forgotten,

hout gates," he said quite calmly. "I had forgotten, for the moment, that

d was coming up the stairs. The Prime Minister threw open the window. From down the hall came a babel of voices and Daphne's soap-box and monument voice. "I think I had better tell you," she was saying "that Violet and I have found traces of two men-muddy

sat motionless. I remembered suddenly that somebody always sneezed at crises like these, and then I realised inevitably that I was going to be the person. Somewhere I had heard that if you hold your breath and swallow at the psychological moment you may

the ground below, standing up to my waist in shrubbery and very much jarred. Sir George was not so lucky. He put a foot through a pane of glass with a terrible crash, and it took all of Mr. Harcourt's strength to release him. Standing below, I could see a flare of light in the room we had just left, and the si