For the first time Hilary was visited by alarming doubts, as he contemplated Sabrina’s future. For the first time he saw himself at war with the world for her future, and he saw that it wouldn’t do. These people might be stupid and criminally negligent, but they meant well, and they were her only actual bulwarks against life. Drive them to desperate measures, and where would it end? For the first time he wondered if it would have been better for her if he had never come back at all. Not that he had had much choice....

The police station at Wells was only mildly concerned about Sabrina’s mysterious disappearance. They took the viewpoint that a girl of nearly eighteen who had calmly packed a bag and walked out in broad daylight with at least two pounds in her purse was not in any immediate danger. They were pretty sure that she had not been seen at the railway station and she was not at any of the hotels, but they were making further inquiries and would probably have something to report in the morning. They advised Aunt Effie to go home and get some rest and be prepared to come and collect the girl when she turned up safe and sound the next day. In fact, they suggested, she might be turning up at home any minute now, none the worse for her adventure, and it would be a pity if there was no one there to receive her.

Baffled and silenced by the bland efficiency of the law, Aunt Effie and Father returned to the car and drove away in the direction of Nuns Farthing. But without Hilary. He was far from satisfied, and he meant to drift round the railway station and a bar or two, picking up local gossip.

He went first to the Swan, which was probably the only hotel Sabrina was likely to know about in Wells, and when the manageress’ back was turned he inspected the register, but without success. He glanced into the dining-room and the lounge and as he expected drew blank. He then went down the road and the social scale and finally fetched up in a pub bar where a dart game was in progress.

Various ancients had grown gregarious over their mild and bitter, and the entry of a constable just come off duty was greeted with a small stir. Had the missing young lady been found, they wanted to know. No, she had not.

“I saw un, I did,” volunteered an old boy in the corner with a bubbling pipe.

“Aye, Tom, ’ere, ’e saw un,” asserted his companion proudly.

“Did you, now?” said the constable, humoring them. “Where would that be?”

“Pretty creetur she were, too,” mumbled the old man into his beer. “Nigh broke her neck, she did, gettin’ on the bus.”

“What bus?” said Hilary involuntarily, drawing nearer.

“How do you know so much about it?” inquired the constable, cagily.