“Laughing! I hear you, sir.”
“No, not me.” He gave an impatient jerk of his arm, and lifted his face again. His smooth, creamy face seemed to gleam, there were subtle curves of derisive triumph in all its lines. He was careful not to look directly at the young policeman. “The most extraordinary laughter I ever heard,” he added, and the same touch of derisive exultation sounded in his tones.
The policeman looked down on him cogitatingly.
“It’s perfectly all right,” said Miss James coolly. “He’s not drunk. He just hears something that we don’t hear.”
“Drunk!” echoed the man in the bowler hat, in profoundly amused derision. “If I were merely drunk——” And off he went again in the wild, neighing, animal laughter, while his averted face seemed to flash.
At the sound of the laughter something roused in the blood of the girl and of the policeman. They stood nearer to one another, so that their sleeves touched and they looked wonderingly across at the man in the bowler hat. He lifted his black brows at them.
“Do you mean to say you heard nothing?” he asked.
“Only you,” said Miss James.
“Only you, sir!” echoed the policeman.
“What was it like?” asked Miss James.