Page:Waylaid by Wireless - Balmer - 1909.djvu/256

Rh Ethelwolf the Saxon, or even at the Conquest, or even, indeed, in our own colonial days, he finally drew from me that I had first met you upon the Britannia coming over.

"When I finally had to admit that unequivocally, he reached out sort of hopelessly for his watch and placed it with his other things under his pillow, and then this morning—"

"Yes," the girl said impatiently, "this morning?"

"Well, first thing this morning," Preston continued, "when bath steward knocks me up, I find old Dunneston in his pajamas poking about the floor, under the lounge, and even into the wash basins.

"I asked him what the racket was, and he took a last reluctant gaze under the towel rack, felt in all the shoes, and then came out with it.

Really, Mr. Preston,' he started off,—and you know how he says it. 'Really, Mr. Preston, I dislike to mention it after the—aw—unfortunately false character of your alibi 230