Then he turned back to Philippa.
"Is that supposed to be the coast on the other side of the point?"
he asked.
"I don't exactly know where it is," she replied. "Every time Henry
finds out anything new, he comes and works at it. I believe that
very soon it will be perfect. Then he will start on another part of
the coast."
"This is not the only one that he has prepared, then?" Lessingham
enquired.
She shook her head.
"I believe it is the fifth," she replied. "They all disappear when
they are finished, but I have no idea where to. To me they seem to
represent a shocking waste of time."
Lessingham was suddenly taciturn. He held out his hand. "You are
dining with us to-morrow night, remember," she said.
"I am not likely to forget," he assured her.
"And don't get drowned," she concluded. "I don't know any of these
fishermen--I hate them all--but I'm told that Oates is the worst."
"I think that we shall be quite all right," he assured her. "Thanks
very much for finding me the charts. What I have seen will help me."
Helen came in for a moment and their farewell was more or less
perfunctory. Lessingham was almost thankful to escape. There was
an unusual flush in his cheeks, a sense of bitter humiliation in his
heart. All the fervour with which he had started on his perilous
quest had faded away.
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