Page:The Ball and the Cross.djvu/296

along the wall ran something that might have been a bookcase, only that it was not filled with books, but with flat, oblong slabs or cases of the same polished dark-red consistency. What those flat wooden cases were they could form no conception.

The doctor sat down with a polite impatience on his professional perch; MacIan remained standing, but Turnbull threw himself almost with luxury into a hard wooden arm-chair.

“This is a most absurd business, doctor,” he said, “and I am ashamed to take up the time of busy professional men with such pranks from outside. The plain fact is, that he and I and a pack of silly men and girls have organised a game across this part of the country—a sort of combination of hare and hounds and hide and seek—I daresay you’ve heard of it. We are the hares, and, seeing your high wall look so inviting, we tumbled over it, and naturally were a little startled with what we found on the other side.”

“Quite so!” said the doctor, mildly. “I can understand that you were startled.”

Turnbull had expected him to ask what place was the headquarters of the new exhilarating game, and who were the male and female enthusi-