"He was. He had got all his papers and everything ready to start to-night."
"You feel sure of that?"
"He wrote and told me so himself."
Lieutenant Topham nodded in silence. Then he inquired--
"Do you know a Mr Taylor?"
"Taylor? I know a John Taylor----"
"Who comes from Lancashire and keeps a motor-car?"
"No," said Mr Drummond. "I don"t know that one. Why?"
"Then you didn"t send a long telegram to Mr Burnett yesterday telling him that Mr Taylor would call for him in his motor-car and drive him to your house?"
"Certainly not!" cried Mr Drummond indignantly. "I never sent a long telegram to any one in my life. I tell you I don"t know anything about this Mr Taylor or his motor-car. If Mr Burnett told you that, he"s light-headed indeed!"
"Those are merely the questions Captain Blacklock asked me to put,"
said the lieutenant soothingly.
"Is he the officer in command of the base?" demanded Mr Drummond a little fiercely.
"No," said Topham briefly; "Commander Blacklock is an officer on special service at present."
"Commander!" exclaimed Mr Drummond with a menacing sniff. "But you just called him Captain."
"Commanders get the courtesy t.i.tle of Captain," explained the lieutenant, rising as he spoke. "Thank you very much, Mr Drummond.
There"s only one thing more I"d like to say----"
"Ay, but there are several things I"d like to say!" said Mr Drummond very firmly. "I want to know what"s the meaning of this outrage to my friend. What"s your theory?"
Before the war Lieutenant Topham had been an officer in a pa.s.senger liner, but he had already acquired in great perfection the real Navy mask.
"It seems rather mysterious," he replied--in a most unsuitably light and indifferent tone, Mr Drummond considered.
"But surely you have _some_ ideas!"
The Lieutenant shook his head.
"We"ll probably get to the bottom of it sooner or later."
"A good deal later than sooner, I"m afraid," said Mr Drummond severely.
"You"ve informed the police, I presume."
"The affair is not in my hands, Mr Drummond."
"Then whose hands is it in?"
"I have not been consulted on that point."
Ever since the war broke out Mr Drummond"s views concerning the Navy had been in a state of painful flux. Sometimes he felt a genuine pride as a taxpayer in having provided himself with such an efficient and heroic service; at other times he sadly suspected that his money had been wasted, and used to urge upon all his acquaintance the strong opinion that the Navy should really "do something"--and be quick about it too!
Lieutenant Topham depressed him greatly. There seemed such an extraordinary lack of intelligent interest about the fellow. How differently Nelson would have replied!
"Well, there"s one thing I absolutely insist upon getting at the bottom of," he said resolutely. "I am accused of sending a long telegram to Mr Burnett about a Mr Taylor. Now I want to know the meaning of that!"
Lieutenant Topham smiled, but his smile, instead of soothing, merely provoked the indignant householder.
"Neither you nor Mr Burnett are accused of sending telegrams. We only know that you received them."
"Then who sent them, I"d like to know?"
"That, no doubt, will appear in time. I must get back now, Mr Drummond; but I must first ask you not to mention a word to any one of this--in the meantime anyhow."
The householder looked considerably taken aback. He had antic.i.p.ated making a very pleasant sensation among his friends.
"I--er--of course shall use great discretion----" he began.
Lieutenant Topham shook his head.
"I am directed to ask you to tell _n.o.body_."
"Of course Mrs Drummond----"
"Not even Mrs Drummond."
"But this is really very high-handed, sir! Mr Burnett is a very old friend of mine----"
The Lieutenant came a step nearer to him, and said very earnestly and persuasively--
"You have an opportunity, Mr Drummond, of doing a service to your country by keeping absolute silence. We can trust you to do that for England, surely?"
"For Great Britain," corrected Mr Drummond, who was a member of a society for propagating bagpipe music and of another for commemorating Bannockburn,--"well, yes, if you put it like that--Oh, certainly, certainly. Yes, you can trust me, Mr Topham. But--er--what am I to say to Mrs Drummond about your visit?"
"Say that I was sent to ask you to keep your lights obscured,"
suggested the lieutenant with a smile.
"Capital!" said the householder. "I"ve warned her several times about the pantry window. That will kill two birds with one stone!"
"Good morning, sir. Thank you very much," said the lieutenant.
Mr Drummond was left in a very divided state of mind regarding the Navy"s competence, Mr Burnett"s sanity, and his own judgment.