"
"I don't in the least know what you're talking about," said the Major.
"Is there a moving bog, or a high tide, or anything unusual?"
"There's something a great deal worse," said Meldon. "Did you hear
what Doyle said to me a few minutes ago?"
"I heard him asking for the loan of my car cushions. I don't
particularly want to lend them, but I shouldn't regard his getting them
as a catastrophe at all to be compared to the earthquake and all the
other things you were gassing about."
"The cushions in themselves are nothing, and less than nothing, but did
you hear who he wants them for?"
"Some judge or other, wasn't it? Salmon fishing."
"Some judge! What judge?"
"Did he mention his name? If he did I have forgotten it."
"He did mention it," said Meldon. "It was Hawkesby--Sir Gilbert
Hawkesby. Now do you see why I say that we are threatened with a
disaster worse than the eruption of Mount Vesuvius or the fire and
brimstone that overwhelmed Sodom and Gomorrah?"
"No, I don't see anything of the sort. What on earth does the judge
matter to us?"
"Can you possibly be ignorant of the fact? No, you can't, for I told
it to you myself.
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