“And we’ll have your kit taken down by the famous tunnel and so make some use of it.”
Even my repugnance to the idea of that passage had vanished, and I consented to this arrangement also. It added a touch of mystery to the adventure.
“Talking of that passage,” said Captain Welfare, “we’d save railway freight if we brought the rest of the stuff for the shop along with us. If Mr. Davoren wouldn’t mind storing it till Schultz can fetch it?”
“Not a bit. It would be all right in the cellar, I suppose?”
“Oh, certainly. The men will carry it up the passage and store it till it can be fetched. It’ll save a lot of handling, as Schultz can have it all brought straight to the shop by road.”
It all seemed to me a perfectly natural and convenient arrangement, and I remember laughingly stipulating with Edmund that he should drive away the bats before I ventured down the passage.
They left the next day, expecting to be away about a week.
I was to receive a post-card telling me as nearly as possible when the Astarte would fetch up.
I was left alone with my locum tenens, Mr. Snape. I fear he found me an uneasy host.
He was a terribly earnest young man, who had made himself ill by overworking and under-feeding in slum parishes.