“For your having saved that lady, sir.”
“Yes; but he must be actuated by something stronger than that, Trigger. From what my uncle said, he must be a person from Australia, who is said to have been in some way connected with my father in business matters. And now I think of it, that reminds me of a word or two that Hawksworth let drop while you were in the building with Warner.”
“There is no knowing, sir, what this spy fellow is up to, but we shall find out before long, I’ll be bound.”
“Anyhow, Tom, I shall never rest or give up ballooning, until we do cross his path once more.”
“I am glad to hear you say so, sir.”
“Yes, I am curious to know what has gone from the workroom—you recollect, Trigger, there were papers there about flying, which I have not thoroughly read yet; still, I should be sorry to lose them.”
“Do you refer to Professor Scudder’s writings, Mr Goodall?”
“Yes; though I daresay they are of an impracticable kind; at the same time, I should not like to find that they are in the hands of our enemies.”
CHAPTER VII
FINANCE AND FINESSE
As may have been gathered, Mr Falcon’s actions in first watching the movements of Harry Goodall and of Miss Chain at the Crystal Palace, and then of going to Wedwell to see Doctor Peters, were not so much actuated by a desire to give the former a distaste for ballooning, as to keep them away from Wedwell Hall, where the financier had been manœuvring to entrap Squire Dove, and at the same time to lay siege to the affections of his daughter. This kind of premeditated conduct was not in accordance with the terms of Mr Falcon’s mission, undertaken by him before he left Sydney—quite the reverse, indeed.