Page:Buchan - The Thirty-Nine Steps (Grosset Dunlap, 1915).djvu/96

 "Listen, Sir Harry," I said. "I've something pretty important to say to you. You're a good fellow and I'm going to be frank. Where on earth did you get that poisonous! rubbish you talked to-night?" His face fell. "Was it as bad as that?" he asked ruefully. "It did sound rather thin. I got most of it out of the Progressive Magazine and pamphlets that agent chap of mine keeps sending me. But you surely don't think Germany would ever go to war with us?"

"Ask that question in six weeks and it won't need an answer," I said. "If you'll give me your attention for half an hour I am going to tell you a story."

I can see yet that bright room with the deers' heads and the old prints on the walls, I Sir Harry standing restlessly on the stone curb of the hearth, and myself lying back in an armchair, speaking. I seemed to be another person, standing aside and listening to my own voice, and judging carefully the reliability of my tale. It was the first time I had ever told