Page 118 - the-thirty-nine-steps

CHAPTER NINE

The Thirty-Nine Steps

’Nonsense!’ said the official from the Admiralty.
Sir Walter got up and left the room while we looked
blankly at the table. He came back in ten minutes with a
long face. ‘I have spoken to Alloa,’ he said. ‘Had him out
of bed very grumpy. He went straight home after Mulross’s
dinner.’
‘But it’s madness,’ broke in General Winstanley. ‘Do you
mean to tell me that that man came here and sat beside me
for the best part of half an hour and that I didn’t detect the
imposture? Alloa
must be out of his mind.’ ‘Don’t you see the cleverness of
it?’ I said. ‘You were too interested in other things to have
any eyes. You took Lord Alloa for granted. If it had been
anybody else you might have looked more closely, but it was
natural for him to be here, and that put you all to sleep.’
Then the Frenchman spoke, very slowly and in good
English.
‘The young man is right. His psychology is good. Our en-
emies have not been foolish!’
He bent his wise brows on the assembly.
‘I will tell you a tale,’ he said. ‘It happened many years
ago in Senegal. I was quartered in a remote station, and to

118 The Thirty-Nine Steps