201.Chapter Eighteen（2）

thesavagecuthimshortand，takinghishand，affectionatelypressedit。

“helmholtzwaswonderfultome，”bernardresumed，afteralittlepause。“ifithadn’tbeenforhim，ishould…”

“now，now，”helmholtzprotested。

therewasasilence。inspiteoftheirsadness–becauseofit，even；fortheirsadnesswasthesymptomoftheirloveforoneanother–thethreeyoungmenwerehappy。

“iwenttoseethecontrollerthismorning，”saidthesavageatlast。

“whatfor？”

“toaskifimightn’tgototheislandswithyou。”

“andwhatdidhesay？”askedhelmholtzeagerly。

thesavageshookhishead。“hewouldn’tletme。”

“whynot？”

“hesaidhewantedtogoonwiththeexperiment。buti’mdamned，”thesavageadded，withsuddenfury，“i’mdamnedifi’llgoonbeingexperimentedwith。notforallthecontrollersintheworld。lshallgoawayto-morrowtoo。”

“butwhere？”theothersaskedinunison。

thesavageshruggedhisshoulders。“anywhere。idon’tcare。solongasicanbealone。”

fromguildfordthedown-linefollowedtheweyvalleytogodalming，then，overmilfordandwitley，proceededtohaslemereandonthroughpetersfieldtowardsportsmouth。roughlyparalleltoit，theuplinepassedoverworplesden，tongham，puttenham，elsteadandgrayshott。betweenthehog’sbackandhindheadtherewerepointswherethetwolineswerenotmorethansixorsevenkilometresapart。thedistancewastoosmallforcarelessflyers–particularlyatnightandwhentheyhadtakenhalfagrammetoomuch。therehadbeenaccidents。seriousones。ithadbeendecidedtodeflecttheuplineafewkilometrestothewest。betweengrayshottandtonghamfourabandonedair-lighthousesmarkedthecourseoftheoldportsmouth-to-londonroad。theskiesabovethemweresilentanddeserted。itwasoverselborne，bordonandfarnhamthatthehelicoptersnowceaselesslyhummedandroared。