Lance grinned. ‘Poor, ugly little beast, then,’ he said. ‘I don’t care. I’ve got my adventure. Her name is Janey and I am her knight-errant. We’ve got all eternity before us. Where do we go from here?’
Their preliminary investigations were unexpectedly profitable. To Feering’s delight he discovered that the old charwoman who had lived in the basement in the days of his youth was still in occupation. After a glorious reunion, which could not have been more hearty had he been her long-lost son, she told them all she knew of the ex-tenants of the top floor. This was not a great deal, but the story had points of interest.
There had been two of them, she said, ‘flash boys, a little too smart to be trusted.’ They had been living there for the best part of a month, and had seemed to her experie
