He drew the other man aside and whispered something;
then they came back to where Anna stood, and
she felt herself pushed -- not exactly roughly, but certainly
very firmly -- by the two gentlemen into the room
where were the remains of the good cold luncheon
which she had set out there some two hours before.

She heard the key turned on her, and then a quick
colloquy outside. She heard Mr. Hayley exclaim,
"Now we'd better telephone to the police." And then,
a moment later: "But the telephone's gone! What an
extraordinary thing! This becomes, as in 'Alice in
Wonderland,' curiouser and curiouser----" There
was a tone of rising excitement in his quiet, rather
mincing voice. Then came the words, "Look here!
You'd better go outside and see that no one comes near
that motor car, while I hurry along to the place they
call 'Robey's.' There's sure to be a telephone there."

Anna felt her legs giving way, and a sensation of
most horrible fear came over her. She bitterly repented
now that she had not told Mr. Hayley the truth --
that these parcels which she had now kept for three
years were only harmless chemicals, connected with an
invention which was going to make the fortune of a
great many people, including her nephew, Willi Warshauer,
once this terrible war was over.

The police? Anna had a great fear of the police,
and that though she knew herself to be absolutely innocent
of any wrong-doing. She felt sure that the fact
that she was German would cause suspicion. The
worst would be believed of her. She remembered with
dismay the letter some wicked, spiteful person had
written to her mistress -- and then, with infinite comfort,
she suddenly remembered that this same dear mis-

[[317]]

p316 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p317w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p318

v?