"And I'm rather knocked up with my fight."
"Fight? Did Maunders show fight?"
"No. Your Hindoo did. He assaulted me as he did you and left his job unfinished in the same way. It's a long story and I want your assistance. Go and have your dinner, Colonel, and I'll lie down on the sofa in your sitting-room until you return."
"Pooh! pooh! I can't eat with such news as this exciting me." Towton threw off his coat and hung his silk hat on a peg. "Come into the sitting-room and I'll send my man to the nearest restaurant for a meal. Meanwhile you'd better have a peg, for you look as white as a winter's day."
"No, thank you, Colonel. I had a brandy and soda just after leaving The Georgian Hall," said Vernon as they entered the sitting-room.
"Have you been there--at the bazaar?"
"Yes. Diabella had set up her tent there and was telling fortunes. I heard of this at Lady Corsoon's the other day, and so ventured to beard the lioness in her den."
"And the lioness turned out to be a lion," chuckled Towton throwing himself into a chair after making the sofa comfortable with cushions for his guest. "Well, we'll have the whole story after a makeshift dinner, for, hang it, your disclosure has taken away a very excellent appetite. Bendham!" The Colonel turned to the retired soldier who acted as his valet and who had just entered the room, "go round to the nearest restaurant and tell them to send in the best small dinner they have, for two. Look sharp, now. You can lay the cloth in the smoking-room; we'll make shift there."
Bendham saluted military fashion and took a speedy departure, while his master turned his head in the direction of Vernon. "Tell me all that has happened to you now," he said easily; "it will be some time before the dinner makes its appearance, and I'm on tenterhooks. The deuce, to think that our blackguard friend--for he is that, I swear--should be earning his money as a fortune-teller. It's worse than----" Towton hesitated.
"Than my profession of a detective, you would say, Colonel," finished Vernon languidly. "I should rather think so. I assist the law, and Maunders breaks it. But neither profession is tempting to a gentleman."