After all, I suppose it was. At the very sight of this girl, my whole attitude towards this adventure had changed. It remained black, it remained dangerous, but now I was beginning to enjoy it. All things looked excellent. I picked Evelyn up and sat her in my lap: becoming conscious at the same time that my fellow-preacher was peering fishily through the glass from the corridor. So I shoved her off again decorously, not before she had given demonstration of affection, and instead I picked up Sermons from a Sussex Parish. Stone spoke ventriloquially, without opening his lips.
"That's fine," he said. "Now why don't you go out and tell him to put his shirt on `Gay Tomato' for the 3.30 at Gatwick?" But my clerical friend had disappeared — wondered uncomfortably just how suspicious he had become — and Stone went on in the tone of a parent lecturing his elder son for staying out late. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself," he continued, "gallivanting around the country in fancy-dress, when you've got a fine girl like that waiting for you of home!" Quite suddenly he stopped, as something appeared to occur to him, and looked coldly out of the window.
"Now, now! Not again," pleaded Evelyn. "Ken, Mr. Stone isn't speaking to any of us. There was the most awful row back there, and it was all H.M.'s fault. I don't know quite what it was: something about H.M.'s new hat: I only got to Colonel Charters's house when it was all over. But no sooner had Mr. Stone got there than H.M. wouldn't listen to him and chucked him out of the house, and they were both standing there swearing at each other and threatening to punch each other in the nose. I ran after Mr. Stone down the drive, because I know what H.M.'s like, but by that time he wouldn't listen. I think it's a jolly shame, because Mr. Stone came all the way from America just to tell H.M. something…. "
"Forget it," growled Stone, much mollified, nevertheless. "I told you this was a pleasure trip — I came over to see my daughter and son-in-law in Bristol. That's all. But I tried to see Merrivale in order to oblige a friend of mine on the other side. Anyway, Miss Cheyne, I'm glad I met you again. I'm glad there's somebody connected with that old so-and-so who appears to have a grain of sense."
Evelyn frowned. "You see, Ken, I met Mr. Stone again at the Moreton Abbot station, when we were both taking this train. And I've been trying to find out what it was he wanted to tell H.M. He isn't — well, very communicative. But it's something that concerns a person called `L'."
There was a pause. Evelyn was looking at me steadily, and I wondered how much she knew. They must have seen by my expression that this meant a great deal. The whole atmosphere of that compartment had subtly changed. Stone was regarding me with narrowed eyes.
"Something's up, eh?" he asked quietly.
"Something is very damnably up," I said, and looked at Evelyn. "Do you know the whole story?"
"I know what H.M. told me," she answered, "and part of what you said over the 'phone. But that's not what I want to know, Ken. What on earth have you been up to? I've got a whole suit of clothes for you," she indicated a valise in the rack above. "It's an old one that Colonel Charters wore before he got so thin, and he says it should fit you. He's very thorough. He even put in a clasp-knife in case you should have to do some more burglaring. Oh, and I've also got a ticket for you, to prove you got aboard the train in legal style. But did anyone see you get aboard in that policeman's outfit? Did anybody get suspicious? I saw you run across and get on the train, when I was just ready to jump out myself; and then I couldn't find you anywhere afterwards"
"I don't know. That's what has been worrying me. Does the train make any stops between here and Bristol?'