understand, could not
remain in a regiment when such things could be said. Then we tumbled
downhill; and I've been at this for four years. And, you know, sir, it
might be worse!"

Frank nodded.

Naturally he did not believe as necessarily true this terse little
story, and he was absolutely certain that if cards were mixed up in it
at all, obviously the Major had cheated. So he just took the story and
put it away, so to speak. It was to form, he perceived, the
understanding on which they consorted together. Then he began to wonder
about the girl. The Major soon supplied a further form.

"And Mrs. Trustcott, here? Well, she joined me, let us say, rather more
than eighteen months ago. We had been acquainted before that, however.
That was when I was consenting to serve as groom to some--er--some
Jewish bounder in town. Mrs. Trustcott's parents live in town."

The girl, who had been trudging patiently a foot or two behind them,
just glanced up at Frank and down again. He wondered exactly what her
own attitude was to all this. But she made no comment.

"And now we know one another," finished the Major in a tone of genial
finality. "So where are you taking us--er--Mr. Gregory?"

(III)

They were fortunate that night.

The part of Yorkshire where they were traveling consists chiefly of an
innumerable quantity of little cottages, gathered for the most part
round collieries. One has the impression--at any rate, from a
motor--that there is nothing but villages. But that is not a fact. There
are stretches of road, quite solitary at certain hours; and in one of
these they noticed presently a little house, not twenty yards from the
road, once obviously forming part of a row of colliers' cottages, of
which the rest were demolished.

It was not far off from ruin itself, and was very plainly uninhabited.
Across the front door were nailed deal props, originally, perhaps, for
the purpose of keeping it barred, and useful for holding it in its
place. The Major and Gertie kept watch on the road while Frank pushed
open the crazy little gate and went round to the back. A minute later he
called to them softly.

He had wrenched open the back door, and within in the darkness they
could make out a little kitchen, stripped of everything--table,
furniture, and even the range itself. The Major kicked something
presently in the gloom, swore softly, and announced he had found a
kettle. They decided that all this would do very well.