褐衣男子32

 (Anne’s Narrative Resumed) ,I had great trouble with Suzanne. She argued, she pleaded, she even wept before she would let me carry out my plan. But in the end I got my own way. She promised to carry out my instructions to the letter and came down to the station to bid me a tearful farewell.,I arrived at my destination the following morning early. I was met by a short black-bearded Dutchman whom I had never seen before. He had a car waiting and we drove off. There was a queer booming in the distance, and I asked him what it was. “Guns,” he answered laconically. So there was fighting going on in Jo’burg!,I gathered that our objective was a spot somewhere in the suburbs of the city. We turned and twisted and made several detours to get there, and every minute the guns were nearer. It was an exciting time. At last we stopped before a somewhat ramshackle building. The door was opened by a Kafir boy. My guide signed to me to enter. I stood irresolute in the dingy square hall. The man passed me and threw open a door.,“The young lady to see Mr. Harry Rayburn, ” he said, and laughed.,Thus announced, I passed in. The room was sparsely furnished and smelt of cheap tobacco smoke. Behind a desk a man sat writing. He looked up and raised his eyebrows.,“I must be seeing double,
” I apologized. “Is it Mr. Chichester, or is it Miss Pettigrew? There is an extraordinary resemblance to both of them.”,“Both characters are in abeyance for the moment. I have doffed my petticoats—and my cloth likewise. Won’t you sit down? ”,I accepted a seat composedly.,“It would seem,
” I remarked, “that I have come to the wrong address.”,“From your point of view, I am afraid you have. Really, Miss Beddingfeld, to fall into the trap a second time! ”,