It was dark before the seventeenth Earl of Blight returned to the house and joined the others at the dinner-table. His face wore a slightly worried expression.
"The fact is, my dear," he said, in answer to a question from the
Countess, "I am a little upset about Algernon. I fear we have lost him."
"Algernon?" said the Countess in surprise.
"Yes. We were standing at the top of Flamborough Head, looking down into the sea, when—" He paused and tapped his glass, "Sherry, Jenkins," he said, catching the butler's eye.
"I beg your pardon, my lord."
"—When poor Algernon stumbled and—Do any of you boys know if your brother can swim?"
Everard, the ninth, said that Algernon had floated once in the Paddington
Baths, but couldn't swim.
"Ah! I was hoping—But in any case, coming into the water from that height—Well, well, we must face our troubles bravely. Another glass of sherry, Jenkins."
As they passed through the hall on their way to the drawing-room, Lord Blight stopped a moment at the aneroid barometer and gave it an encouraging tap.
"It looks like another fine day to-morrow," he said to Cuthbert, the second Podby. "The panorama from the Scalby cliffs is unrivalled. We might drive over and have a look at it."