Richmond was one of my officers.
I sent him on a reconnaissance.
He was killed.
Natural course of events in war time.
Wish to say resent very much - slur on my wife.
Best woman in the world.
Absolutely - Caesar's wife!"
General Macarthur sat down.
His shaking hand pulled at his moustache.
The effort to speak had cost him a good deal.
Lombard spoke.
His eyes were amused.
He said: "About those natives -"
Marston said: "What about them?"
Philip Lombard grinned.
"Story's quite true!
I left 'em!
Matter of self-preservation.
We were lost in the bush.
I and a couple of other fellows took what food there was and cleared out."
General Macarthur said sternly: "You abandoned your men - left them to starve?"
Lombard said: "Not quite the act of a pukka sahib, I'm afraid. But self-preservation's a man's first duty.
And natives don't mind dying, you know. They don't feel about it as Europeans do."
Vera lifted her face from her hands. She said, staring at him:
"You left them - to die?"
Lombard answered: "I left them to die." His amused eyes looked into her horrified ones.
Anthony Marston said in a slow puzzled voice: "I've just been thinking - John and Lucy Combes.
Must have been a couple of kids I ran over near Cambridge.
Beastly bad luck."
Mr. Justice Wargrave said acidly: "For them, or for you?"
Anthony said: "Well, I was thinking - for me - but of course, you're right, sir, it was damned bad luck on them.
Of course it was a pure accident.
They rushed out of some cottage or other.
I had my licence endorsed for a year.
Beastly nuisance."
Dr. Armstrong said warmly:
"This speeding's all wrong - all wrong!
Young men like you are a danger to the community."
Anthony shrugged his shoulders.
He said: "Speed's come to stay.
English roads are hopeless, of course.
Can't get up a decent pace on them."
He looked round vaguely for his glass, picked it up off a table and went over to the side table and helped himself to another whiskey and soda.
He said over his shoulder: "Well, anyway, it wasn't my fault. Just an accident!"
III The manservant, Rogers, had been moistening his lips and twisting his hands.
He said now in a low deferential voice: "If I might just say a word, sir."
Lombard said: "Go ahead, Rogers."
Rogers cleared his throat and passed his tongue once more over his dry lips.
"There was a mention, sir, of me and Mrs. Rogers.
And of Miss Brady.