"We've put it across them, the swine."
Then Spots said: "For Gideon and the Lord. It was a great notion. Who thought of it?"
"Young Leigh gave the name," said Neave.
"Good for you, Leigh," shouted Spots. "You're keeping up the reputation of the Leopard's den."
Naturally that seemed to Martin the supreme moment of the whole superb affair.
VI
At one o'clock in the afternoon of December the twentieth a motor car left Tavistock station and tore fiercely westward until it reached the excellent village of Cherton Widger. Then it panted up an abrupt hill and, passing a lodge, ran up a short drive to The Steading, a square low-roofed house surrounded by irreproachable lawns that sloped away to the coverts. The chauffeur descended and carried on to the steps a portmanteau and a corded play-box. Martin, looking uncouthly smart in a new overcoat (with a strap behind) and a bowler hat, stood rather nervously by the door. He had come home for the holidays.
In the hall he met his aunt. He kissed her: or rather she kissed him. His uncle burst out of his study and shook hands with him: his cousin Margaret, aged fifteen, also appeared and shyly shook hands. It seemed that his cousin Robert, aged seventeen, would not escape from Rugby till to-morrow. Everybody began to ask him questions which he mechanically answered.
"You must have left Elfrey very early," said his aunt.