Page 129 - the-thirty-nine-steps

and ‘twentyone’ where the cliffs grew lower. I almost got up
and shouted.
We hurried back to the town and sent a wire to MacGil-
livray. I wanted half a dozen men, and I directed them to
divide themselves among different specified hotels. Then
Scaife set out to prospect the house at the head of the thirty-
nine steps.
He came back with news that both puzzled and reassured
me. The house was called Trafalgar Lodge, and belonged to
an old gentleman called Appleton a retired stockbroker, the
house-agent said. Mr Appleton was there a good deal in the
summer time, and was in residence now had been for the
better part of a week. Scaife could pick up very little infor-
mation about him, except that he was a decent old fellow,
who paid his bills regularly, and was always good for a fiver
for a local charity. Then Scaife seemed to have penetrated to
the back door of the house, pretending he was an agent for
sewing-machines. Only three servants were kept, a cook, a
parlour-maid, and a housemaid, and they were just the sort
that you would find in a respectable middle-class house-
hold. The cook was not the gossiping kind, and had pretty
soon shut the door in his face, but Scaife said he was positive
she knew nothing. Next door there was a new house build-
ing which would give good cover for observation, and the
villa on the other side was to let, and its garden was rough
and shrubby.
I borrowed Scaife’s telescope, and before lunch went for
a walk along the Ruff. I kept well behind the rows of villas,
and found a good observation point on the edge of the golf-

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