The question was should I accept the invitation pencilled across the card?  I was anxious enough in all conscience to find out something definite about McMurtrie and his friends, but I certainly had no wish to mix myself up with any mysterious business in which I was not quite sure that they were concerned.  For the time being my own affairs provided me with all the interest and excitement that I needed.  Besides, even if the man with the scar was one of the gang, and had really tried to poison or drug his companion, I was scarcely in a position to offer the latter my assistance.  Apart altogether from the fact that I had given my promise to the doctor, it was obviously impossible for me to explain to a complete stranger how I came to be mixed up with the matter.  An escaped convict, however excellent his intentions may be, is bound to be rather handicapped in his choice of action.

With my mind busy over these problems I pursued my way home, only stopping at a small pub opposite Victoria to buy myself a syphon of soda and a bottle of drinkable whisky.  With these under my arm (it’s extraordinary how penal servitude relieves one of any false pride) I continued my journey, reaching the house just as Big Ben was booming out the stroke of half-past nine.

It seemed a bit early to turn in, but I had had such a varied and emotional day that the prospect of a good night’s rest rather appealed to me.  So, after mixing myself a stiff peg, I undressed and got into bed, soothing my harassed mind with another chapter or two of H.G.  Wells before attempting to go to sleep.  So successful was this prescription that when I did drop off it was into a deep, dreamless slumber which was only broken by the appearance of Gertie ’Uggins with a cup of tea at eight o’clock the next morning.

Soundly and long as I had slept I didn’t hurry about getting up.  According to Joyce, Tommy would not be back until somewhere about two, and I had had so many grisly mornings of turning out at five o’clock after a night of sleepless horror that the mere fact of being able to lie in bed between clean sheets was still something of a novelty and a pleasure.  Lie in bed I accordingly did, and, in the process of consuming several cigarettes, continued to ponder over the extraordinary events of the previous evening.

When I did roll out, it was to enjoy another nice hot bath and an excellent breakfast.  After that I occupied myself for some time by running over the various notes and calculations which I had made while I was with McMurtrie, just in case I found it necessary to start the practical side of my work earlier than I expected.  Everything seemed right, and savagely anxious as I was to stay in town till I could find some clue to the mystery of George’s treachery, I felt also an intense eagerness to get to grips with my new invention.  I was positively hungry for a little work.  The utter idleness, from any intelligent point of view, of my three years in prison, had been almost the hardest part of it to bear.