t I fought for sleep that next hour or two. Then, as the
cocks had crowed undoubtedly, I lighted a pipe. Afterwards I
stole out in the faint light to shave. When I returned, I was
confronted by an old acquaintance a detective. He wanted
information about me, naturally enough, as it was war-time. He
sat himself down on the seat whereon the presence was. I had
squirmed when he shook hands with me so heartily (I had twisted
my hand, slipping on a warship's deck). I was disposed to squirm
once again. When he sat down rudely on that seat which I knew to
be occupied, I forgot myself at once, and drew him to a seat
beside me. 'Can't you see what's there?' I said hastily. Of
course he could not see, and thought me a little mad. Then, when
I explained that the seat had been kept, he looked suspicious, If
only he had enjoyed the same perceptiveness as myself, what pages
he might have filled in that expensive-looking note book. I
chuckled to myself as I thought of his description his, who had
crossed the Rhodesian border with me at Plumtree on such special
service. What would that note book make of him? The note book's
master looked at me hard. Doubtless I aroused certain unnecessary
alarums and excursions in the imagination of a useful and already
overworked official. But I had given him nothing tangible in the
way of incrimination. He looked at me as one who much desired to
keep me under observation, but he said 'Goodbye!'

The house answered the pink paper's description. It was on
the verge of some waste ground. But I had expected a more
prosperous-looking place.

It had a long row of white palings that lacked repainting. The
house itself looked rather poverty-stricken. I had hurried over
my breakfast at the station, then I had asked my way, and found
it. I knocked once and again. That wife, whom I had never seen
before, came slowly to the door. He had shown me her portrait
more than once, and I remembered it. It certainly had not
flattered her. She was dressed in black. Her face would have been
fresh under her bright hair, but the eyes were drawn, and the
lips quivered that spoke to me, quivered in a pitiful fashion. I
told her how I came from her husband. I embarked on a longish
rigmarole as to the luck that brought me her way after all,
against expectations. She listened without saying a word. Then I
told her about him, and she listened patiently. 'I seem to have
felt him with me on my way,' I said. 'He was so keen that