It is true that for the moment I had forgotten the cause of all our woes. Fitz had not, however; indeed, he had forgotten nothing. Not only did he appear to have everything arranged, but he seemed to have taken cognisance of the smallest detail.
"I have ordered quite a decent little dinner at Ward's," said he. "You can always depend upon good plain, solid, old-fashioned English cooking. They give you the best mulligatawny in London. I must say myself, that if I have to do a man's work, I like to have a man's meal. And I think we can depend on some very decent madeira."
"It is very satisfactory to know that," said Coverdale, with his deepest growl.
"There is nothing like madeira in my opinion," said Fitz, "if you are going to be busy and you want to keep cool."
"That is something to know," said the Chief Constable, without enthusiasm.
"I should think it was," said Fitz. "Do you know who gave me the tip?"
The Chief Constable gave a growl in the negative.
"Ferdinand himself. And what that old swine don't know of most things is not much in the way of knowledge. He once told me he practically lived on madeira throughout the Austrian campaign; and the night before Rodova he drank six bottles. He says nothing keeps you so cool and sharp as madeira."
"Umph," the Chief Constable grunted.
Brasset and Jodey, however, two extremely zealous subalterns in the Middleshire Yeomanry, were much impressed.