“I'm afraid he didn't show you much sport,” Sir Henry observed. “From what Jimmy Dumble's brother told him, he seems to have taken you in entirely the wrong direction, and on the wrong tide.”
“We had a small catch,” Lessingham replied. “I really went more for the sail than the sport, so I was not disappointed.”
“The coast itself,” Sir Henry remarked, “is rather an interesting one.”
“I should imagine so,” Lessingham assented. “Mr. Ben Oates, indeed, told me some wonderful stories about it. He spoke of broad channels down which a dreadnought could approach within a hundred yards of the land.”
“He is quite right, too,” his host agreed.
“There's a lot of deep water about here. The whole of the coast is very curious in that way. What the—what the dickens is this?”
Sir Henry, who had been strolling about the room, picked up a Homburg hat from the far side of a table of curios. Philippa glanced up at his exclamation.
“That's Nora's trophy,” she explained. “I told her to take it up to her own room, but she's always wanting to show it to her friends.”
“Nora's trophy?” Sir Henry repeated. “Why, it's nothing but an ordinary man's hat.”
“Nevertheless, it's a very travelled one, sir,” Harrison pointed out. “Miss Nora picked it up on Dutchman's Common, the morning after the observation car was found there.”