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"Richard," she exclaimed, "you shall not do this from my house! I forbid you!" "Do what?" "Give information. Do you know what it would mean if they believed you?" "Death," he answered. "Maderstrom knew the risk he ran when he came to this country under a false name." "Perfectly," Lessingham admitted. "But I won't have it!" Philippa protested. "He has become our friend.
"You are talking to Mr. Lessingham," Philippa protested, "as though he were an enemy, instead of the best friend you ever had in your life." Richard waved them away. "You must leave this to us," he insisted. "Maderstrom and I will be able to understand one another, at any rate. What are you doing in this house in England? What is your mission here?"
I have had a very rough time here, but by the grace of Providence I stumbled up against an old friend the other day, Bertram Maderstrom, whom you must have heard me speak of in my college days. It isn't too much to say that he has saved my life. He has unearthed your parcels, found me decent quarters, and I am getting double rations. He has promised, too, to get this letter through to you.
If so, now is the moment to declare it." "I am very much obliged to you," Philippa retorted, "but I have never met or heard of this Mr. Maderstrom " "Baron Maderstrom," he interrupted. "Baron Maderstrom, then, in my life; whereas Mr. Lessingham I remember perfectly." "I am sorry," Captain Griffiths said, setting down his empty teacup and rising slowly to his feet.
Richard, shaved and with his hair cut, attired once more in the garb of civilisation, seemed a different person. Even in these few hours the lines about his mouth seemed less pronounced. They talked freely of Maderstrom. "A regular 'Vanity Fair' problem," Richard declared, balancing his wine glass between his fingers, "a problem, too, which I can't say I have solved altogether yet.
"What an absurdity all this is!" she exclaimed. "Maderstrom," Captain Griffiths said thoughtfully, "was, curiously enough, an intimate college friend of your brother's. He was also a visitor at Wood Norton Hall. At neither place is there any trace of Mr. Hamar Lessingham. Perhaps you have made a mistake, Lady Cranston. Perhaps you have recognised the man and failed to remember his name.
Lessingham shrugged his shoulders. "The alternative," he confessed, "is in your hands." Richard moved towards the telephone. "I am sorry, Maderstrom," he said, "but my duty is clear. Who is Commandant here, Philippa?" Philippa stood between her brother and the telephone. There was a queer, angry patch of colour in her cheeks. Her eyes were on fire.
"The name sounds familiar," Helen echoed. "Do have some more chutney, Dick." "Thanks! What a pig I am making of myself!" he observed cheerfully. "You girls will think I can't talk about any one but Maderstrom, but the whole business beats me so completely. Of course, we were great pals, in a way, but I never thought that I was the apple of his eye, or anything of that sort.
How he got the influence, too, I can't imagine. And oh! I knew there was something else I was going to ask you girls," Felstead went on. "Have you ever had a letter, or rather a letter each, uncensored? Just a line or two? I think I mentioned Maderstrom which I should not have been allowed to do in the ordinary prison letters."
The channels which your cruisers so carefully avoided were the only safe avenues. So you see why it is, Maderstrom, that I have no grudge against you." Lessingham's face for a moment was the face of a stricken man. There was a look of dull horror in his eyes. "Is this the truth?" he gasped. "It is the truth," Sir Henry assured him gravely. "Does this conclude the explanations?"
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