E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
1922
About eleven o'clock on the night of Monday, May 12, 1914, MarshallAllerdyke, a bachelor of forty, a man of great mental and physicalactivity, well known in Bradford as a highly successful manufacturer ofdress goods, alighted at the Central Station in that city from anexpress which had just arrived from Manchester, where he had spent theday on business. He had scarcely set foot on the platform when he wasconfronted by his chauffeur, a young man in a neat dark-green livery,who took his master's travelling rug in one hand, while with the otherhe held out an envelope.
"The housekeeper said I was to give you that as soon as you got in, sir,"he announced. "There's a telegram in it that came at four o'clock thisafternoon—she couldn't send it on, because she didn't know exactly whereit would find you in Manchester."
Allerdyke took the envelope, tore it open, drew out the telegram,and stepped beneath the nearest lamp. He muttered the wording ofthe message—
"On board SS. Perisco
"63 miles N.N.E. Spurn Point, 2.15 p.m., May 12_th_.
"Expect to reach Hull this evening, and shall stop Station Hotel therefor night on way to London. Will you come on at once and meet me? Want tosee you on most important business—
Allerdyke re-read this message, quietly and methodically folded it up,slipped it into his pocket, and with a swift glance at the station clocktur