CHAPTER XXVI
'WHERE DOES GOD COME IN?'
Springfield glanced around as if looking for a table, and then seeing us, came up quickly and held out his hand.
'Awfully glad to see you,' he said heartily. 'I came to meet Buller, who I thought might be in your train. But as he wasn't there, and as I saw you two fellows come across here, I thought I'd follow you. Left them all well down in Devonshire?'
There was no suggestion of restraint or arrière pensée in his tones; he spoke in the most natural way possible, and seemed to regard us as friends.
'I will join you, if I may,' he went on; 'I hate feeding alone. By the way, what are you fellows doing to-day? If you have nothing on hand, you might come on to my club.'
'I am afraid I can't,' I replied; 'I am fixed up. As for Edgecumbe, he has to get back to duty.'
'I am at a loose end,' he went on. 'Of course there are hosts of men I know in London; all the same, it's a bit lonely here. I am staying at the——' and he mentioned a well-known military club. Then he looked at us, I thought, suspiciously.
'Was Miss Bolivick well when you left?' he asked. 'I—I am more than ordinarily interested in her'; and he glanced at Edgecumbe as he spoke. But Edgecumbe's face did not move a muscle. Evidently he had taken my words to heart.
For a few seconds there was an awkward silence. Then he went on: