“Did any of the boys go out on the train?” he asked.
“Only Wilkinson,” one replied.
“Where's he going?”
“I don't know,” said the other. “As he took his clothes-bag, it doesn't look as if he was coming back.”
Charnock set off for Norton's office. He did not know how he got there, because a reaction had begun, and he sat down feeling powerless and badly shaken.
CHAPTER XXX
UNDERSTANDING
At midnight, Charnock, sitting drowsily in a chair in Norton's office, roused himself with a jerk. He was too anxious about Festing to go to bed, but bodily fatigue reacted on his brain and dulled his senses. For all that, he thought he heard steps in the snow, and getting up quickly went to the door. The bitter cold pierced him like a knife and he shivered. A man stood outside, and his dark figure, silhouetted against the snow, was somehow ominous. Charnock tried to brace himself, for he feared bad news.
“Well?” he said hoarsely.