“Quite real.”
Evelyn put down his glass untasted.
“I am frightened,” he said. “I shall go to bed.”
And without more words he bolted into the house.
Philip called good night after him, but there was no response, and he was left alone with the Hermit.
“I am not frightened,” he said. “But what on earth does it all mean? Have a drink?”
Tom Merivale laughed quietly.
“It means exactly what I have said,” he answered. “Come down to my home sometime, and you shall see. It is all quite simple and quite true. It is all as old as love and as new as love. It is also perfectly commonplace. It must be so. I have only taken the trouble to verify it.”
Philip’s cool business qualities came to his aid, or his undoing.
“You mean you can convey a message to a bird or a beast?” he asked.