“At the worst, nothing will matter much if I don’t pull it off.”
He replaced the ABC on its shelf and went up to his own room. First locking the door, he began deliberately to pack his razors and other toilette articles in an attaché case. When he had completed this task, he glanced round the room.
“Nothing else? No, all the rest of the stuff is waiting for me in London.”
Chapter II.
The Affair in the Maze
Howard Torrance fidgeted a little and then turned to the girl beside him.
“A bit feeble, just sitting about like this and doing nothing. Care to go down to the tennis courts and play a single?”
Vera Forrest knew the symptoms well. A good many men would have been glad enough of the chance to monopolise her and would have asked nothing better than to sit there in the shade in her company. But Howard had a surplus of physical energy which could be worked off only by continual exercise. “What’ll we do next?” was a phrase which ran through his talk like a reiterated battle-cry; and he seemed to have exalted Sloth to the premier position in his private catalogue of the mortal sins. She glanced at him mischievously and decided to tease him a little before letting him have his way.
“No, thank you,” she said, sedately.
Howard had a second suggestion ready.
“Want to go over to the links and play a few holes?”