“You’ve finished lunch?” asked Devizes in a disregarded parenthesis.
“May I ask the same question of you?” said Bobby, “and how it is you come to be connected with the Preembys?”
“I’m a blood relation,” said Devizes, considering it. “On the mother’s side. A sort of cousin. And I happen to be a nervous and mental specialist. That’s why I’ve been brought in to-day.”
“I see,” said Bobby. “You’ve got no intention of—putting him back?”
“None at all. We’re not antagonists, Mr——”
“Roothing.”
“We’re on the same side. You did well to get him out. We were trying to do the same thing by less original methods. We’re very grateful to you. The lunacy laws are rather a clumsy and indiscriminating machine. But, as you probably know, if he keeps clear of them for fourteen days, they’ll have to begin with him all over again. He renews his sanity. We’re allies in that. We’ve got to know each other better. Your intervention—most surprising—strikes me as being at once eccentric and courageous. I wish you’d tell me more about it, how you met him, how they got hold of him, and what set you thinking of an escape.”
“H’m,” said Bobby, and came and asserted his right to half the hearthrug. He had thought of the way in which he could tell this story—to Christina Alberta—the original Christina Alberta with the blue eyes. He felt that that version needed considerable revision, indeed, possibly even a complete rearrangement, for the present hearer. He was by no means sure he wanted to tell it to the present hearer. The man was a doctor and a mental specialist and a distant relation, and he was for keeping Sargon out of an asylum, and that was all to the good, but it still lingered in Bobby’s mind that he was an interloper. Nevertheless, he made way for Bobby quite civilly on the hearthrug, and his manner was attentive and respectful. Bobby embarked upon a description of Sargon’s first appearance in Midgard Street.
Devizes showed himself alert and intelligent. He grasped the significance of Sargon’s projected visit to the dome of Saint Paul’s at once. “I’ve no doubt he did it,” said Devizes. “Neither have I,” said Bobby, “though I’ve not asked him about it yet.” They pieced together the probable story of the calling of the disciples before Billy and Bobby had come upon the procession. “It’s touching,” said Devizes, “and immense.” Bobby approved these words.
“You see how he got me,” said Bobby.