to cut across country. We're in the east, and we've got to go west."
There was a clock over our heads, and Madrasia looked at it. We were half-way through the afternoon.
"I suppose we shall land somewhere about midnight," she said. "But it's just what I expected."
She was wrong. We travelled a long way, to be sure, after leaving Peterborough, and I knew, by passing such places as Rugby and Warwick, that we were making into the heart of mid-England. But at eight o'clock, and at a small station, Parslewe had us out of our carriage and into a cab; within a few minutes we were in the quaint old streets of what looked like a mediæval town. And even then we did not know its name; all we knew was that he had ordered our driver to carry us to the Crown. Presently we were there, and saw an old-world hostelry, out of which came a very modern hall-porter, who, at sight of Parslewe, smiled widely and touched his forehead.
"Glad to see you again, sir!" said this functionary. "Rooms, sir?"
