Jonah and Co Part 23

"Well, you go on," said Daphne. "Ask Adele nicely, first, if she'll take my place, and then if she minds starting now."

"Fair lady," he said,

"_The vay ith long, the vind ith cold, It maketh me feel infernal old._"

"I'm sorry," said Adele hurriedly, "but I've left my purse at home.

Try my husband."

Berry put on his hat, c.o.c.ked it, and turned to me.

"D'you want a thick ear?" he demanded. "Or will you go quietly?"

"A little more," I retorted, "and you ride in the d.i.c.key."

Ten minutes later Pong was sailing into the outskirts of Bayonne.

To emerge from the town upon the Briscous road proved unexpectedly hard. The map insisted that we should essay a dark entry, by the side of which a forbidding notice-board dared us to come on.... Adele and I pored over the print, while out of our bickering Berry plucked such instructions as his fancy suggested, and, alternately advancing and retiring, cruised to and fro about a gaunt church. After a while we began to ask people, listen carefully to their advice, thank them effusively, and then demonstrate to one another that they were certainly ignorant and probably hostile.

At length--

"How many times," inquired Berry, "did they walk round Jericho before the walls went?"

"Thirteen, I think," said Adele. "Why?"

"Oh, nothing," was the reply. "Only, if you aren't quick, we shall have this church down. Besides, I'm getting giddy."

"Then show some initiative," I retorted.

"Right," said Berry, darting up a side-street.

Calling upon him to stop, Adele and I fought for the map.... A sudden lurch to the left flung us into the corner, whence, before we had recovered our equilibrium, a violent swerve to the right returned us pell-mell. At last, in response to our menaces, Berry slowed up before a sign-post.

Its legend was plain.

BRISCOUS 10

We stared at it in silence. Then we stared at one another. Finally we stared at Berry. The latter spread out his hands and shrugged his shoulders.

"Instinct," he said. "Just instinct. It's very wonderful.

Hereditary, of course. One of my uncles was a water-waste preventer.

With the aid of a cricket-bat and a false nose, he could find a swamp upon an empty stomach. They tried him once, for fun, at a garden-party. n.o.body could understand the host's uneasiness until, amid a scene of great excitement, my uncle found the cesspool under the refreshment marquee."

Eventually we persuaded him to proceed.

For a while the going was poor, but after we had pa.s.sed Briscous all cause for complaint vanished. Not only was the surface of the road as good as new, but the way itself, was winsome. The main road to Peyrehorade could not compare with it. At every twist and turn--and there were many--some fresh attraction confronted us. The countryside, shy of the great highways, crept very close. We slipped up lanes, ran side by side with brooks, brushed by snug cottages. Dingles made bold to share with us their shelter, hill-tops their sweet prospects, hamlets their quiet content.

An amazing sundown set our cup br.i.m.m.i.n.g.

That this might run over, Bidache itself gave us a chateau--ruined, desolate, and superb. There is a stateliness of which Death holds the patent: and then, again, Time can be kind to the dead. What Death had given, Time had magnified. Years had added to the grey walls a peace, a dignity, a charm, such as they never knew while they were kept. The grave beauty of the place was haunting. We pa.s.sed on reluctantly....

A quarter of an hour later we ran into Peyrehorade.

Here Adele relieved my brother-in-law and, encouraged by the promise of a late tea, made the most of the daylight.

Eighty minutes later we slid into Pau.

As we swept up the drive of our villa--

"Well," said Berry, "I must confess it's been a successful day. If we'd lunched with Evelyn, we should have missed that venison, and if the main road hadn't been vile, we should have missed Bidache. Indeed, provided no anti-climax is furnished by the temperature of the bath-water, I think we may congratulate ourselves."

Adele and I agreed enthusiastically.

Falcon met us in the hall with a note and a telephone message.

The first was from Mrs. Swetecote.

_DEAREST DAPHNE,_

_How awful of you! Never mind. I know how terribly easy it is to forget. And now you must come over to us instead. Falcon insisted that you would wish us to have lunch, so we did--a jolly good one, too.

And Jack smoked one of Berry's cigars, and, of course, we both lost our hearts to n.o.bby. In fact, we made ourselves thoroughly at home._

_Your loving EVELYN._

_P.S.--Try and find out who's staying at Pau with a blue all-weather coupe. They went by us to-day like a flash of lightning. Fortunately we were going dead slow, so it was all right. But they ought to be stopped._

The second was from Jonah.

As rendered by Falcon, it ran:--

"Captain Mansel's compliments, sir, and, as Mrs. Adele Pleydell was the last to drive Ping, 'e thinks _she must 'ave 'is key_.... And as Love's the honly thing as laughs at locksmiths, sir, will you kindly return this forthwith.... I asked Captain Mansel where 'e'd like you to meet 'im, sir, but 'e said _you'd_ know."

From Pau to La Barre is seventy miles--as near as 'd.a.m.n it.'

I covered the distance alone. All the way a memory kept whispering above the rush of the tires.... 'Madonna!'.... 'Madonna!'...

CHAPTER V

HOW LOVE CAME TO JILL, HERBERT TO THE RESCUE, AND A YOUNG MAN BY HIS RIGHT