It is needless to say
that I made immediate preparations to obey his summons. My wife
indeed protested--and I must admit with some show of reason--that
I was unfit to endure further fatigues, and that my bed was the
only proper place for me. I could not listen; and James, Mr.
Rassendyll's servant, being informed of the summons, was at my
elbow with a card of the trains from Strelsau to Zenda, without
waiting for any order from me. I had talked to this man in the
course of our journey, and discovered that he had been in the
service of Lord Topham, formerly British Ambassador to the Court
of Ruritania. How far he was acquainted with the secrets of his
present master, I did not know, but his familiarity with the city
and the country made him of great use to me. We discovered, to
our annoyance, that no train left till four o'clock, and then
only a slow one; the result was that we could not arrive at the
castle till past six o'clock. This hour was not absolutely too
late, but I was of course eager to be on the scene of action as
early as possible.
"You'd better see if you can get a special, my lord," James
suggested; "I'll run on to the station and arrange about it."
I agreed.
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