Everyhour you spend in this house and in this
company increases thedanger.
Theythink, most of them, not of Evallonia, but of
their own power andtheir own pockets. He produced a sheet of the largest-scale
Ordnance Survey. Aplan was vaguely building itself up in his head. I saw you at the
meeting the other night, he said pleasantly. Craw would fire me the morn if he knew
what I had been up to.
No, Allins has been lucky, andthings up to now have
turned out rather well for him. They andAllins believe that Mr Craw is at Castle
Gay. But what kind ofdesperate act would profit them?
Jaikie cut short his greeting, for a car was coming
down the road. That beasts got fleas, said Jaikie with a tipsy solemnity. These
Knockraw folk want something out ofCraw. Im just biding my timetill I can change to
something more congenial.
Yonwas you, wasnt it, that I saw in the two-seater?
His voice was the sing-song of the Glasgow slums.
I am staying with some friends at the Hydropathic.
Wetook refuge in a Communist meeting, and Allins followed us. Jaikie arranged the
departure with an eye to the observation-pointson the hill and in the
by-road.
Then he went for a walk along the Callowabanks. We
have means of getting over that difficulty.
Only that Mr Sigismund Allins is a rascal, said
Casimir.
Aplan was vaguely building itself up in his head.
He read this missive at least eight times.
It must be the last, allthe same, or Ill never get
out of this hotel. Weve hada great crack, but for Gods sake keep it to
yourselves.
But they wont find Mr Craw, put in
Alison.
Her local knowledge could not be dispensed
with.
We fell in with Allins, and he thought he
recognised Mr Craw.
You must depart exactly the sameparty as you
arrived.
There might be a regrettableincident, ye see, and
Im not wanting to be fired.
I mean that by this time theyve all shifted their
quarters, bagand baggage, to the Castle. They appeared to be deep in talk, Tibbets
especiallyexpounding and gesticulating.
Theyre ringin up frae Castle Gay, Mr Galt, he said.