This act strangely exasperated the Colonel. "I will
see you out," he said. "The buttons of the Massachusetts Third might
attract attention."
"Oh, my cloak covers it," and he threw it carelessly over his shoulders.
Penhallow said, "I have confessed defeat--you may thank Ann Penhallow."
"Yes--an unfortunate situation, James. May I have another cigar? Thanks."
"Sorry I have no whisky, Grey."
"And I--How it pours! What a downfall!"
The Colonel was becoming more and more outwardly polite.
"Good-bye, Henry."
"_Au revoir_," said the younger man.
Penhallow went with his brother-in-law down the long corridor, neither
man speaking again. As they passed Josiah, Penhallow said, "I shall want
my horse at five, and shall want you with me." At the head of the stairs
he dismissed his visitor without a further word. Then he turned back
quickly to Josiah and said in a low voice, "Follow that man--don't lose
him. Take your time. It is important--a matter of life and death to
me--to know where he lives. Quick now--I trust you."
"Yes, sir." He was gone.
Grey feeling entirely safe walked away in the heavy rain with a mind
at ease and a little sorry as a soldier for the hapless situation with
which Penhallow had had to struggle. When we have known men only in the
every-day business of life or in ordinary social relations, we may quite
fail to credit them with qualities which are never called into activity
except by unusual circumstances.
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