He took it in his hand and compared it with the one which he still held. They were as common stones as any that lay in the road. And there was no letter. The conclusion was clear. The stone was a signal. Nor could he doubt for whom it was intended. The London officer was right. Walterson was in the neighbourhood and she was in communication with him. The girl’s infatuation still ruled her.
That hardened him a little in his course of action. But he was not at ease, and when some one coughed—slightly but with meaning—while he gazed at the stone, he jumped a yard. He stood, with all the blood in his body flown to his face. The cough had come from the wood behind him; and ten paces from him, peeping over the bush, was Mr. Bishop.
The runner chuckled. “Very well done, reverend sir,” he said. “Very well done. You’ve the makings of a very tidy officer about you. I could not have done it much neater myself. But now, suppose you leave the coast clear, or maybe you’ll be scaring the other party.”
Mr. Sutton, with his face the colour of beetroot—for he was heartily ashamed of the part he had been playing—began to stammer an explanation.
“I saw the young lady, and didn’t—I couldn’t understand——”
“What the lay was,” Mr. Bishop answered, grinning at the other’s discomfiture. “Just so. Same with me. But suppose in the meantime, reverend sir,” with unction, “you leave the ground clear for the other party? We can talk as well elsewhere as here, and without queering the pitch.”
The chaplain swallowed his vexation as well as he could and complied—but stiffly. The two made their way back in silence to the gap in the wall by which the chaplain had entered. There, having first ascertained that the road was clear, they stepped out. By that time Mr. Sutton was feeling better. After all, he had been right to follow the girl. Left to herself, and a slave to the villain who had fascinated her, she might suffer worse things than a friendly espionage. He determined to take the bull by the horns. “What do you make of it?” he asked, still blushing.
“Queer lay,” Bishop answered drily.
“You understand it, then?”
“Middling well. Gipsy patter that.” He pointed to the stone.