It took him barely five minutes to discover--nothing. With an air
of relief he rearranged everything. When Philippa returned, he was
sitting on the lounge, going through the charts which they had
looked out together.
"Well?" she asked.
"There is nothing here," he decided, "which will help me very much.
With your permission I will take this," he added, selecting one at
random.
She nodded and they replaced the others. Then she touched him on
the arm.
"Listen," she said, "are you perfectly certain that there is no one
coming?"
He listened for a moment.
"I can't hear any one," he answered. "They've started a four-handed
game of pool in the billiard room."
She smiled.
"Then I will disclose to you Henry's dramatic secret. See!"
She touched the spring in the side of the secretary. The false back,
with its little collection of fishing flies, rolled slowly up. The
large and very wonderful chart on which Sir Henry had bestowed so
much of his time, was revealed. Lessingham gazed at it eagerly.
"There!" she said. "That has been a great labour of love with
Henry. It is the chart, on a great scale, from which he works. I
don't know a thing about it, and for heaven's sake never tell Henry
that you have seen it."
He continued to examine the chart earnestly. Not a part of it
escaped him.
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