The distance I had to walk was about two miles and a half. I had just left myself time to do it comfortably, and to get to our meeting-place a few minutes before Christine was due. This seemed to me the most sensible arrangement, for I did not want to be seen hanging about the town, and there was no object in spending a lengthy vigil in the pastrycook's shop.
About a quarter of a mile beyond the village I passed the head of a narrow lane leading towards the water. I could not stop to investigate, but I felt pretty certain that this must be the road by which Manning was accustomed to reach his barge. I only hoped that he was safe on board, for, much as I was looking forward to seeing him in the evening, I should have found him horribly in the way if he had happened to turn up at that particular moment.
Fortunately no such contretemps occurred. I tramped on, keeping a sharp look-out ahead of me, and at twenty past three by the church clock I entered the straggling outskirts of Shalston. A few minutes' walk along the main street brought me to my destination—a quaint little old-fashioned shop, with a large supply of buns, tarts, and other delicacies piled up in the bow-window.
As I pushed open the door, a bell above my head jangled fiercely. In answer to its summons a pleasant-faced middle-aged woman glided out from behind a rampart of freshly baked loaves, and gazed at me benignly across the counter.
"Good afternoon," I said. "I believe you have a room upstairs where you serve tea?"
"That's right, sir," she replied encouragingly. "There's a nice room on the first floor. Will you step this way, sir?"
She conducted me through a door at the back into a linoleum-lined passage, whence a flight of stairs led up to the landing above.
"I am expecting a friend to tea with me—a lady," I added. "When she arrives, would you be kind enough to tell her I'm here?"
"To be sure I will, sir," was the affable answer. "And mebbe you'd rather wait till she comes before you give your order?"
"Perhaps it would be safest," I admitted. "She might have a weakness for some particular kind of jam tart."