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"I should like you to tell me," he said, "what a couple of idiots like us have to do with these confounded malgamiters. We do not know anything about industry or workmen or work, so far as that goes" he paused and looked severely across the table "especially you," he added. Which was strictly true; for Tony Cornish was and always had been a graceful idler.
I am afraid Joan will be very much disappointed in me. She thinks I am wrapped up heart and soul in the malgamiters and I am not, you know." She turned with a little laugh, and appealed to Mrs. Vansittart, who was watching her closely, as if Dorothy were displaying some quality or point hitherto unknown to the older woman. The girl's eyes were certainly brighter than usual.
The malgamiters moved forward, and White followed them. They took up a position in a hollow a few yards away from the foot-path by which Cornish must pass. One of their number remained behind, crouching on a mound, and evidently reporting progress to his companions below.
The very last of the malgamiters, collected from all parts of the world. I was not proud of them." He sat down and quickly changed the conversation, showing quite clearly that this subject interested him as little as it interested his companions. He brought the latest news from London, which the ladies were glad enough to hear.
"And what do you say?" asked Joan, turning upon the major. "I? Oh, nothing!" replied that soldier, with perfect truthfulness. "Then what are you going to do?" asked Joan, who was practical, and, like many practical people, rather given to hasty action. "We are going to stick to the malgamiters," replied Tony, quietly. "Through thick and thin?" inquired Marguerite, buttoning her glove.
Joan was willing enough to accompany her father, because, in the great march of social progress, she had passed on from charity to sanitation, and was convinced that the mortality among the malgamiters, which had been more than hinted at in the Ferriby family circle, was entirely due to the negligence of the victims in not using an old disinfectant served up in artistic flagons under a new name.
"Do you take anything else seriously?" "Oh no," answered Dorothy Roden, with a laugh. "And your brother?" inquired Mrs. Vansittart. "Is he coming this afternoon?" "He will follow me. He is busy with the new malgamiters who arrived this morning. I suppose you brought them, Mr. Cornish?" "Yes, I brought them. Twenty-four of them the dregs, so to speak.
"He has earned the enmity of Otto von Holzen a man who will stop at nothing and the malgamiters are being raised against him by Von Holzen. Our information is very vague, but we are almost certain that an attempt is to be made on Tony's life to-night between half-past nine and ten. You understand?" Mrs. Vansittart almost stamped her foot. "Oh yes," answered White, looking at the station clock.
When Cornish was within a hundred yards of the ambush, White suddenly ran up the bank, and lifting this man bodily, threw him down among his comrades. He followed this vigorous attack by charging down into the confused mass. In a few moments the malgamiters streamed away across the sand-hills like a pack of hounds, though pursued and not pursuing.
"He has the whole of the malgamiters at his beck and call, and is pretty powerful, I can tell you. They are a desperate set of fellows; men engaged in a dangerous industry do not wear kid gloves." Mrs. Vansittart was watching him across the low tea-table; for Roden rarely looked at his interlocutor. He had more of her attention than he perhaps suspected.
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