Page 130 - the-thirty-nine-steps

course. There I had a view of the line of turf along the cliff
top, with seats placed at intervals, and the little square plots,
railed in and planted with bushes, whence the staircases de-
scended to the beach. I saw Trafalgar Lodge very plainly, a
red-brick villa with a veranda, a tennis lawn behind, and in
front the ordinary seaside flower-garden full of marguerites
and scraggy geraniums. There was a flagstaff from which an
enormous Union Jack hung limply in the still air.
Presently I observed someone leave the house and saun-
ter along the cliff. When I got my glasses on him I saw it
was an old man, wearing white flannel trousers, a blue serge
jacket, and a straw hat. He carried field-glasses and a news-
paper, and sat down on one of the iron seats and began to
read. Sometimes he would lay down the paper and turn his
glasses on the sea. He looked for a long time at the destroy-
er. I watched him for half an hour, till he got up and went
back to the house for his luncheon, when I returned to the
hotel for mine.
I wasn’t feeling very confident. This decent common-
place dwelling was not what I had expected. The man might
be the bald archaeologist of that horrible moorland farm, or
he might not. He was exactly the kind of satisfied old bird
you will find in every suburb and every holiday place. If you
wanted a type of the perfectly harmless person you would
probably pitch on that.
But after lunch, as I sat in the hotel porch, I perked up,
for I saw the thing I had hoped for and had dreaded to miss.
A yacht came up from the south and dropped anchor pret-
ty well opposite the Ruff. She seemed about a hundred and

130 The Thirty-Nine Steps