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We all three laughed, and Tommy promptly took advantage of the invitation to seat himself luxuriously in a big leather arm-chair. I remained standing. "To be quite truthful," I said, "it's been the most refreshing morning I can ever remember." Lord Lammersfield looked at me for a moment with the same smile on his lips.
"I just drifted into it; and anyway one doesn't sell one's country, even if one is an escaped convict." Lord Lammersfield laughed drily. "There are many men," he said, "in your position who would have found it an extraordinarily attractive prospect. I am not at all sure I shouldn't have myself." He paused.
But if the chance had come I'd have sold myself a thousand times over to get you out of prison. The only man I've met who could do anything has been Lord Lammersfield, and he...." She paused, then with a little break in her voice she added: "Well, I think Lord Lammersfield is rather like Tommy in some ways." "I suppose there are still one or two white men about," I said.
Then he turned to Latimer. "I think it would be as well if I explained the position before Casement and Frinton arrive." Latimer expressed his agreement, and motioning me to a chair, Lord Lammersfield again seated himself at the table. His manner, though still quite friendly and unstilted, had suddenly become serious. "For the moment, Mr. Lyndon," he said, "the Prime Minister is out of London.
At a big table in the centre two men were sitting. One was Latimer; the other I recognized immediately as Lord Lammersfield. I had never known him personally in the old days, but I had often seen him walking in the Park, or run across him at such popular rest cures as Kempton and Sandown Park.
It will be my pleasant duty as Home Secretary to see that every possible reparation is made to you for the great injustice that you have suffered." Lammersfield, who had gone back to his seat at the table, again interrupted. "You agree with me, don't you, Frinton, that, pending any steps you and the Prime Minister choose to take in the matter, Mr. Lyndon may consider himself a free man?"
Strictly speaking, of course, you are still a prisoner, but for the present it will perhaps be best to avoid any formal proceedings. I understand that both Lord Lammersfield and Mr. Casement consider it advisable to keep the whole matter as quiet as possible, at all events until the return of the Prime Minister. After that we must decide what steps it will be best to take."
"And are we free now?" inquired Tommy, with a rather pathetic glance at the clock. "You should be very shortly," returned Lammersfield. "Mr. Casement has gone across to the Home Office to explain the latest developments to Sir George Frinton. We are expecting them both here at any moment." "Sir George Frinton?" I echoed. "Why, I thought Mr. McCurdy was at the Home Office."
I asked Lord Lammersfield to bring him here one day. You know what George is like; he would never refuse to do anything a Cabinet Minister suggested. Of course he had no idea who I was until he arrived." "It must have been quite a pleasant surprise for him," I said grimly. "Did he recognize you at once?" Joyce shook her head. "He had only seen me at the trial, and I had my hair down then.
Lammersfield, the corner of whose mouth was twitching suspiciously, broke into the conversation. "It was a remarkable coincidence," he said, "but you see how it confirms Casement's story if any further confirmation were needed." Sir George nodded. "Yes, yes," he said. "I suppose there can be no doubt about it. The proofs of it all seem beyond question." He turned to me.
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