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Page 55
"Impulse!"
"Why not? I trust mine. Can't you?" Philippa added, with a little
shrug of the shoulders.
"Sometimes," Helen sighed, "they are such wild horses, you know.
They lead one to such terrible places."
"And sometimes," Philippa replied, "they find their way into the
heaven where our soberer thoughts could never take us. Good
night, dear!"
CHAPTER XVI
Mr. William Hayter, in the solitude of his chambers at the Milan
Court, was a very altered personage. He extended no welcoming
salutation to his midnight visitor but simply motioned him to a
chair.
"Well," he began, "is your task finished that you are in London?"
"My task," Lessingham replied, "might just as well never have been
entered upon. The man you sent me to watch is nothing but an
ordinary sport-loving Englishman."
"Really! You have lived as his neighbour for nearly a month, and
that is your impression of him?"
"It is," Lessingham assented. "He has been away sea-fishing, half
the time, but I have searched his house thoroughly."
"Searched his papers, eh?"
"Every one I could find, and hated the job. There are a good many
charts of the coast, but they are all for the use of the fishermen."
"Wonderful!" Hayter scoffed. "My young friend, you may yet find
distinction in some other walk of life. Our secret service, I
fancy, will very soon be able to dispense with your energies."
"And I with your secret service," Lessingham agreed heartily. "I
dare say there may be some branches of it in which existence is
tolerable. That, however, does not apply to the task upon which I
have been engaged."
"You have been completely duped," Hayter told him calmly, "and the
information you have sent us is valueless. Sir Henry Cranston,
instead of being the type of man whom you have described, is one
of the greatest experts upon coast defense and mine-laying, in the
English Admiralty."
Lessingham laughed shortly.
"That," he declared, "is perfectly absurd."
"It is," Hayter repeated, with emphasis, "the precise truth. Sir
Henry Cranton's fishing excursions are myths. He is simply
transferred from his fishing boat on to one of a little fleet of
so-called mine sweepers, from which he conducts his operations.
Nearly every one of the most important towns on the east coast are
protected by minefields of his design."
Lessingham was dumbfounded. His companion's manner was singularly
convincing.
"But how could Sir Henry or any one else keep this a secret?" he
protested. "Even his wife is scarcely on speaking terms with him
because she believes him to be an idler, and the whole neighbourhood
gossips over his slackness."
"The whole neighbourhood is easily fooled," Hayter retorted. "There
are one or two who know, however."
"There are one or two," Lessingham observed grimly, "who are
beginning to suspect me."
"That is a pity," Hayter admitted, "because it will be necessary
for you to return to Dreymarsh at once."
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