“I want to get back ’ome in toime for tea.”
“What time do you have tea?”
“Foive o’clock or thereabouts.”
“I see.”
A kindly smile came into the eyes of the colonel. He turned to another officer standing by the table and said:
“Raikes, is any one going across this afternoon with dispatches?”
“Yes, sir,” replied the other officer. “Commander Jennings is leaving at three o’clock.”
“You might ask him if he could see me.”
Within ten minutes a young man in a flight-commander’s uniform entered.
“Ah, Jennings,” said the colonel, “here is a little affair which concerns the honor of the British army. My friend here, Sam Gates, has come over from Halvesham, in Norfolk, in order to give us valuable information. I have promised him that he shall get home to tea at five o’clock. Can you take a passenger?”