‘May I just give my message quietly? It was a promise.’

‘Of course, my dear. But then come home. It is the best way in which we can help your grandfather.’ Minnie patted Cicely’s arm and continued on her way, contriving to sweep Ida along with her before she could protest. Bob Lilburn followed them looking magisterial and grave. He had indicated to Olivia that he expected her to accompany him and he could not understand why she lingered, showing what he considered to be a morbid interest in the unfortunate event; but Lionel Stephens was with her and would no doubt bring her along in due course.

Cicely looked round for Glass and saw him standing near Tom Harker’s feet; it was as if Sir Randolph stood guard at his head and Glass at his feet. Cicely approached slowly.

‘Is it getting dark?’ said Tom loudly.

‘Yes, it is beginning to get dark,’ said Sir Randolph.

‘No wind though, not a breath of wind.’ Tom’s voice rose and fell as though he were feverish, but since his conversational manner had always tended towards the histrionic, no one quite knew how to interpret the symptom. Sir Randolph continually looked in the direction from which he expected Doctor West. Tom’s thoughts seemed to be rambling.

‘A dark night, a dry wind and you’ll get rabbits. No wind, no rabbits, I’ve always said. My old mother used to say, if you’d take a drink now and then, if you’d go down the Pub a bit more, Tom Harker, she’d say, you might never been a poacher. But I say I’d rather be a poacher than a drunkard. I’m a rough man, an ignorant man, but I never in my life been the worse for drink. Take a bit of game is one thing, wait for a hare in the roots towards dark, it’s natural justice that is. The poor man’s pot has got to be filled.’

‘Come on now, Tom,’ said Glass heartily. ‘Remember who you’re talking to.’

‘I remember, I remember. Is it getting dark?’

‘It’s not very dark yet, Tom,’ said Sir Randolph.

‘It’s dark to me. It’s getting dark to me. It’s my belief sir, the bullet has penetrated the brain, I feel it so. To lose the sight of an eye is one thing, but I feel it has penetrated the brain.’

‘We shan’t have long to wait. Doctor West must be here soon.’

‘It has penetrated the brain. I shall be called home. It grows dark. A prayer, I beg you, sir at the last. You and I sir, we may not be always on the same side of things, you are a gentleman and I have always been a poor man but we share one thing sir, we share a God. Say a prayer for me, sir, before I go.’

‘Now Tom for Heaven’s sake, man …’ Sir Randolph, momentarily divided between laughter and embarrassment, looked down at the half-concealed face beneath him. The blood was still seeping out of the handkerchief between the fingers. He looked again for the doctor. There was only the unwanted wavering figure of the animal rights fanatic.