.."
"Just a minute!"
The Chief's voice broke in upon the narrative.
"Didn't you know, Barling, hadn't you heard, about Captain
Strangwise's escape from a German prisoners of war camp?"
"No, sir!" replied the gunner.
"There was a good deal about it in the papers."
"I've not got much eddication, sir," said Barling, "that's w'y I
never took the stripe and I don't take much account of the
newspapers an' that's a fact!"
"Well, go on!" the Chief bade him.
"It was pretty dark in the streets and I follered him along
without his seeing me into the main-road and then down a
turnin'..."
"Laleham Villas," prompted Mr. Marigold.
"I wasn't payin' much attention to were he was leadin' me," said
Barling, "what I wanted to find out was what he was up to!
Presently he turned in at a gate. I was closer up than I meant to
be, and he swung in so sudden that I had to drop quick and crouch
behind the masonry of the front garden wall. My leave pass must
a' dropped out o' my pocket and through the railin's into the
garden.
"Well, the front door must a' been on the jar for th' orficer
here just pushes it open and walks in, goin' very soft like. I
crep' in the front gate and got as far as the door w'ich was
a-standin' half open. I could 'ear the stair creakin' under 'im
and I was just wonderin' whether I should go into the house w'en
I hears a bang and wi' that someone comes aflyin' down the
stairs, dodges through the front hall and out at the back.
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