His manner indicated that he wished the subject dropped; but, after he had given the two men the orders for which he had summoned them, and dismissed them, he fell into a rather perturbed reverie.
After all, might it not be well, as Stanton had urged, to assure himself in regard to John Bull’s honourable intentions? His mind reverted to an expedient which he had already considered and cast aside. It was to communicate with the American Ambassador, get his passports, and start for Paris at once. Then, if he were halted, the purpose of the British Government would be made plain and its hypocrisy exposed.
But, to tell the truth, he rather shrank from such a revelation. Suppose he forced their hand in this way, and they should retaliate, either by attempting to detain him in England, or insisting upon his return to his own country? Was he prepared to——?
As Underhill had said, blood is thicker than water; and there were in his nature many ties that bound him to the mother-country.
No, he concluded; if there was cause to worry, he would meet the emergency when it arose. Anyhow, he was not of the worrying kind. He threw himself down upon the sofa, since even for him it had been a rather strenuous day, and soon was fast asleep.
He was awakened by James. “It is 7:30, sir, and you are dining at 8 o’clock.” Then with a perfectly stolid face: “I beg pardon, sir, what clothes will you take to the Tower, sir? The hall porter says, sir, that with all these soldiers around, they are certainly going to stand you up before a firing squad. And Hottenroth, the barber, says as how every American that comes to London is more or less a German spy. But he is a kind of a foreigner himself, sir. A Welshman, he says he is, and he talks in a very funny way.”
“No, they are not going to stand me up before a firing squad,” Edestone halted this flood of intelligence, as he sprang up from the sofa; “but I shall turn myself into one, and fire the whole lot of you, if you don’t stop talking so much. Now hurry up, and get me dressed. I don’t want to keep Mr. Rebener waiting.”
Yet even with James’s adept assistance, he found the time scant for the careful toilet upon which he always insisted; and it was almost on the stroke of the hour when at last he was ready.
Snatching his hat and cane from James, he started hurriedly out of the door, but found himself abruptly challenged by the sentry just outside whose presence he had for the moment completely forgotten.
“Excuse me, sir,” the soldier saluted, “but my orders are to notify Captain Bright, if you wish to leave your rooms.”