They saw Denby then, and welcomed him. None of them glanced towards the door where Hilary stood. He drew a few steps nearer, cautiously. He must hear, before he woke. Someone brushed past him on the way out....

“You look as though you’d had a bit of a jolt,” said Calthorpe to Denby.

“We’re full of jolts at the Home Office,” replied Denby, and Hilary saw that he looked old and tired. “But this one pretty well floors me.”

“Bad news from somewhere?” Totleigh suggested sympathetically.

“From India—as usual. Hilary Shenstone is dead. One job too many up beyond Peshawur. Nobody’s fault, I suppose—”

Poor old Denby, Hilary was thinking. This has hit him hard. Poor old— What? Dead. Who?

“But his brother George was sitting here just now—” began Calthorpe, dazed.

“He doesn’t know yet. The family will be notified tomorrow. One or two things have to be dealt with first. I shouldn’t have mentioned it, but—I loved his father.”

The family will be notified.... A familiar Home Office phrase, as Hilary well knew. This wouldn’t do, he was ready to wake up now, this was nightmare. They were talking about him. It was his father Denby had loved, his family which would be... Oh, yes, most decidedly, it was time to wake up now....

“It’s always the wrong one,” Denby was saying. “All through the War, it seemed to be always the wrong one, the best one, first. Maybe there’s some reason in it, I don’t know— But I’m going to blame Pearson for this, at least till I know differently. He should have sent more men, instead of Bill Dalton alone. He should have sent sooner—”

Pearson. Yes, of course ... there was a job to do for Pearson.... You’ll have to write my family, Bill. He’d said that himself ... after the crash....

“Hilary was dead of a gunshot wound when the rescue plane arrived,” Denby was saying. “Nothing could have saved him, once he was hit, but—I blame Pearson.”

Dead. He remembered now.... Dalton sitting beside him, under the wing of the useless plane.... His side was hurting ... and he must get back to England ... why? ... something he had to do ... what was the date? ... the nuns would know how to say it ... Oh, God, let me have England instead.... He had prayed.... They had heard him.... Somewhere, somebody had heard him.... But this wasn’t England.... It was Eternity....

CHAPTER SIX

HE stood there in the warm, familiar surroundings of his club in Pall Mall and knew that he was dead. But on the Embankment just now—yes, of course—they hadn’t spoken to him, had they—they hadn’t once looked his way—because they hadn’t known he was there.