Page:Richard Marsh--The goddess a demon.djvu/215

Rh how he had brought my coffee to me, telling me of his inability to make the man hear; how I had gone along the balcony, looked through the window, called to him; how we had entered the room together, and what we had seen lying on the floor. When Atkins had told them so much they let him go. "Call John Ferguson."

It was unnecessary. John Ferguson was waiting, close at hand, completely at their service—or, at least, as much at their service as he was ever likely to be.

I stepped up to the table.

"Large size in blokes, ain't he?" whispered one idiot to another, as I passed through the little crowd.

The other idiot chuckled. I could have hammered their heads together, so sensitive was I at that moment to everything and anything, and so calmly judicial was my frame of mind, in excellent fettle to cut a proper figure on an occasion when everything—happiness, honour, life itself—might hang upon a word!