“Exactly.” Grail looked at him sternly. “And let there be no mistake in carrying out instructions, please. As you may surmise, there are strange things going on, and much may depend on you to-night. I repeat, if the paper on the desk disappears, you are to send without delay the dispatch in that sealed envelope.”
Then he started for the waiting taxi; but the operator halted him at the door.
“Oh, by the way, captain,” he called, “Miss Vedant was trying to get you several times this afternoon.” A bit confused by Grail’s impressive manner and the peculiar instructions given him, he did not think to add that the call had come by wireless.
“Miss Vedant?” The adjutant swung around, his hand on the knob. “Did she leave any message for me?”
“No, sir. Merely said she would call again.”
“Very well. It makes no difference now. I shall probably see her in person in ten or fifteen minutes.”
Whirling uptown with Cato in the cab, he kept pondering over the matter, wondering why Meredith had been so anxious to communicate with him, and trying to piece out an answer from the facts at his disposal.
Then he suddenly slapped his knee, as what seemed to be a solution broke upon him.[{42}]
“Cato,” he exclaimed, “do you remember what Simmons was saying when he was interrupted by that pistol shot, and the arrival of the Japs?”
“Something about a family reunion between the colonel and his daughter, wasn’t it, sir?”