“Well,� said Oates calmly, “I’ll never deny I like some of their ways. I like live wires myself; and, after all, they’re about the liveliest thing in this old country. And I’ll tell you more. I like people who take trouble; and, believe me, they do take trouble. You say they’re all nuts; but I reckon there really is method in their madness. They take trouble to keep those crazy vows of theirs. You spoke about the fellows who carried off the astronomer in an aeroplane. Well, I know Bellew Blair, the man who worked with Pierce in that stunt, and believe me he’s not a man to be sniffed at. He’s one of the first experts in aeronautics in the country; and if he’s gone over to them, it means there’s something in their notion for a scientific intellect to take hold of. It was Blair that worked that pig’s stunt for Hilary Pierce; made a great gasbag shaped like a sow and gave all the little pigs parachutes.�
“Well, there you are,� cried Hunter. “Of all the lunacy——�
“I remember Commander Blair in the War,� said the Prime Minister quietly. “Bellows Blair, they called him. He did excellent expert work. Some new scheme with dirigible balloons. But I was only going to ask Mr. Oates whether he happens to know where Welkin Castle is.�
“Must be somewhere near here,� suggested Normantowers, “as the letters seem to come by hand.�
“Well, I don’t know,� said Enoch Oates doubtfully. “I know a man living in Ely, who had one of those letters delivered by hand. And I know another near Land’s End who thought the letter must have come from somebody living near. As you say, they all seem to come by hand.�
“By what hand?� asked the Prime Minister, with a queer, grim expression.
“Mr. Oates,� said Lord Normantowers firmly, “where is Welkin Castle?�
“Why, it’s everywhere, in a manner of speaking,� said Mr. Oates reflectively. “It’s anywhere, anyhow. Gee—!� he broke off suddenly: “Why, as a matter of fact, it’s here!�
“Ah,� said the Prime Minister quietly, “I thought we should see something if we watched here long enough! You didn’t think I kept you hanging about here only to ask Mr. Oates questions that I knew the answer to.�
“What do you mean? Thought we would see what?�