officially."

Helen Fairclough, who was doing the honours for Lady Cranston, her
absent hostess, assumed the slight air of superiority to which the
circumstances of the case entitled her.

"I heard it distinctly," she declared; "in fact it woke me up. I
hung out of the window, and I could hear the engine just as plainly
as though it were over the golf links."

The young subaltern sighed.

"Rotten luck I have with these things," he confided. "That's three
times they've been over, and I've neither heard nor seen one. This
time they say that it had the narrowest shave on earth of coming
down. Of course, you've heard of the observation car found on
Dutchman's Common this morning?"

The girl assented.

"Did you see it?" she enquired.

"Not a chance," was the gloomy reply. "It was put on two covered
trucks and sent up to London by the first train. Captain Griffiths
can tell you what it was like, I dare say. You were down there,
weren't you, sir?"

"I superintended its removal," the latter informed them. "It was
a very uninteresting affair."