Page 116 - the-thirty-nine-steps

passed on. In a maze of wild fancies I heard the street door
close behind him.
I picked up the telephone book and looked up the num-
ber of his house. We were connected at once, and I heard a
servant’s voice.
‘Is his Lordship at home?’ I asked.
‘His Lordship returned half an hour ago,’ said the voice,
‘and has gone to bed. He is not very well tonight. Will you
leave a message, Sir?’
I rang off and almost tumbled into a chair. My part in
this business was not yet ended. It had been a close shave,
but I had been in time.
Not a moment could be lost, so I marched boldly to the
door of that back room and entered without knocking.
Five surprised faces looked up from a round table. There
was Sir Walter, and Drew the War Minister, whom I knew
from his photographs. There was a slim elderly man, who
was probably Whittaker, the Admiralty official, and there
was General WinStanley, conspicuous from the long scar
on his forehead. Lastly, there was a short stout man with
an iron-grey moustache and bushy eyebrows, who had been
arrested in the middle of a sentence.
Sir Walter’s face showed surprise and annoyance.
‘This is Mr Hannay, of whom I have spoken to you,’ he
said apologetically to the company. ‘I’m afraid, Hannay, this
visit is ill-timed.’
I was getting back my coolness. ‘That remains to be
seen, Sir,’ I said; ‘but I think it may be in the nick of time.
For God’s sake, gentlemen, tell me who went out a minute

116 The Thirty-Nine Steps