bourhood, so when the Witanbury police telephoned to
London, I, being known to be close here, was asked to
go over."

"The police?" repeated both his hearers together.

"Yes, for I'm sorry to tell you" -- he looked searchingly
at the lady as he spoke -- "I'm sorry to tell you,
Mrs. Guthrie, that a considerable number of bombs
have been found in your house. I believe it to be the
fact that you hold the lease of the Trellis House in
Witanbury Close?"

She looked at him too much surprised and too much
bewildered to speak. Then, "Bombs?" she echoed incredulously.
"There must be some mistake! There
has never been any gunpowder in my possession. I
might almost go so far as to say that I have never seen
a gun or a pistol at close quarters----"

She felt a hand groping towards her, and at last find
and cover in a tight grip her fingers. "You do not fire
bombs from a gun or from a pistol, my dearest."
There was a great tenderness in Major Guthrie's voice.

Even in the midst of her surprise and disarray at the
extraordinary thing she had just heard, Mrs. Guthrie
blushed so deeply that Mr. Reynolds noticed it, and
felt rather puzzled. He told himself that she was a
younger woman than he had at first taken her to be.

In a very different tone Major Guthrie next addressed
the man he knew to be sitting opposite to him:
"May I ask how and where and when bombs were
found in the Trellis House?" To himself he was saying,
with anguished iteration, "Oh, God, if only I
could see! Oh, God, if only I could see!" But he
spoke, if sternly, yet in a quiet, courteous tone, his
hand still clasping closely that of his wife.

[[325]]

p324 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p325w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p326

v?