Touch and Go by Patricia Wentworth Page A

cutting the wires.”
    â€œMy dear Geoffrey!” And then, “Mr. Brown was just asking me whether we hadn’t any photographs of the boys—of Henry and Jack. He thinks he may have met Henry some years ago. But I was telling him that we haven’t any photographs at all—not here. Poor Henry never would be photographed, and the others were so young when they—when Jack was killed. Poor little Lucilla’s father, you know. He was only twenty. I have some snapshots taken when they were children, but I haven’t got them here. But of course there would probably be copies up at Holme Fallow—wouldn’t there, Geoffrey?”
    â€œI don’t know of any,” said Geoffrey Hildred, “unless—” He turned to Mr. Brown. “Now that’s a very funny thing, Brown, we had a burglary up at Holme Fallow the other day—the house broken into, a man’s muddy foot-marks all over the place—and the only thing interfered with was an old desk which held papers and photographs. The lock had been forced. I don’t really know why it was kept locked, because there was nothing of value in it, but I suppose the fellow hoped to find something worth having, and then perhaps he was disturbed or something alarmed him. Anyhow nothing of any value was taken. Everything in the desk had been turned over, but it is quite impossible to say whether anything is missing.”
    â€œI see,” said Mr. Brown in his quiet way.

CHAPTER XIII
    Mr. Brown and Mr. Darnac stayed to tea.
    Sarah was not quite sure afterwards who first started the idea of a picnic. She had been a good deal taken up with her own thoughts, and when she emerged from them it seemed to be a settled thing that there was to be a picnic, and the sooner the better, because no one could expect such wonderful weather to go on for ever. It would have to be a lunch picnic, because the evenings had begun to close in. The only point which hadn’t been decided was where they should go. The question was being debated by the Hildred family, with the three outsiders as audience. The choice seemed to lie between the Roman camp on Burdon Hill, Trant Woods, and Burnt Heath. Lucilla fancied the woods. There was a stream, and there would be scarlet toadstools in a clearing.
    Miss Marina instantly vetoed woods—“Far, far too damp, my dear.” Whereupon Lucilla made a face and joined Ricky in voting for the Roman camp—“And two of us can bicycle, and Sarah can take two more in The Bomb .”
    Miss Marina looked shocked.
    â€œBut, my dear, you can have Giles and the Daimler.”
    Lucilla blew her a kiss across the table.
    â€œDarling, we don’t want him. It would be exactly like a personally conducted tour, and if you won’t let me go in The Bomb —”
    â€œOh, my dear child—no!”
    Lucilla sighed.
    â€œWell, I’d rather bicycle than be conducted by Giles. That’s two on the bikes and three in The Bomb .”
    â€œBut what about Miss Hildred?” said Sarah.
    Miss Marina explained in tones of horror that she never went for picnics—Mercer wouldn’t hear of it for a moment—Mercer didn’t really think she ought even to sit out in the garden as late in the year as this—only this morning Mercer had said quite sharply, “After all, ma’am, we’re in October, and you oughtn’t to forget it.”
    Sarah turned to Uncle Geoffrey.
    â€œBut you’re coming—aren’t you?”
    â€œWell, I’m afraid not. That call I had just now obliges me to go up to town. I shall have to leave you to get into mischief without me.”
    â€œI hope no one will get into mischief at all,” said Miss Marina firmly.
    Sarah retired into her thoughts again. There was something she wanted to say, but she didn’t quite know the best way of getting it said. Bertrand’s story about Mr. Brown and his midnight wanderings had given