The speaker vanished and returned a moment later with a companion who wore a Lieutenant's uniform, and carried a tooth-glass in his hand. His lean, rather sallow face relaxed for an instant into a smile during the process of introduction, and then resumed a mask-like gravity. He up-ended a suit-case, sat down and silently eyed the others in turn.
"What have you two been doing?" asked the King's Messenger. "Been on leave?"
"Yes," replied Thorogood. "I met Mouldy this morning, and we had a day in town together."
"Brave man! I should be sorry to have had such a responsibility. What did you do?"
"Well, we lunched with my Uncle Bill at his club——"
"That was nice for Uncle Bill—what then?"
"Uncle Bill had to go to the Admiralty, so I took Mouldy for a walk in
St. James's Park"—the speaker contemplated his friend sorrowfully—"and
I lost him."
The King's Messenger laughed. "What happened to you, Mouldy?"
The officer addressed put his empty glass between his knees and proceeded to fill a cherrywood pipe of villainous aspect from a Korean oiled-silk tobacco pouch.
"Took a flapper to the movies," was the grave and somewhat unexpected reply.