"Yes, the Lancers from Hounslow. They come into the empty Albany Street Barracks to-night. Then I think that there are to be some extra infantry in Whitehall, from Aldershot. Cadman is seeing to all that."
"But you know that the Lancers are being drawn from Hounslow?" asked C. with a meaning laugh.
"Yes, I know that," admitted B. "Why do you laugh, C.?"
C.'s only reply was to laugh again.
"I will tell you why he laughs," volunteered D. "He laughs, B., because the Lancers withdrawn from Hounslow to Regent's Park, Salt under arrest at Stafford, and the Monmouth colliers coming along the Bath road and passing within a mile or two of Hanwood, represent the three angles of a very acute triangle."
"There is still Hampden," muttered B.
"Yes; what is going to happen to Hampden?" asked C., with a trace of his mordant amusement.
A., who was walking about the room aimlessly, stopped and faced the others.
"I'll tell you what," he exclaimed emphatically. "I said just now that I didn't like the idea of smuggling Salt away like this, and, although it may be advisable, I don't. But I wish to God that we had openly arrested the pair of them as traitors, and burned their diabolical store before every one's eyes three months ago."
"Ah," said D. thoughtfully, "it was too early then. Now it's too late."