'What filthy luck that they didn't come on the scene ten minutes earlier!' Hemmingway muttered. 'Anyway, we've no option now; we'll have to walk.'
'Hell!' Lavina glanced at her feet. 'Anyway, thank goodness
I had day shoes on when I left St. James's Square. Let's go then.'
They set off up the hill past the two towers of the Crystal Palace on its summit and entered Church Street, Upper Norwood, where the road sloped down again. Rather to her surprise, after they had been going for about half an hour Lavina felt better. Although she had only spent three out of the last forty-eight hours in bed, she had been sitting or lying about in the grounds of Buckingham Palace for more than half that time and, whenever her brain had been too tired to wonder any more about what was going to happen to her she had dozed quite a lot; so that her exhaustion when Hemmingway had found her had been much more mental than physical, and the walking was doing her good.
The day was overcast so they could see neither the sun nor the comet, which had now approached sufficiently near the earth to have been visible, even in daylight, if the clouds had not intervened. But the day was warm, dry and windless, so walking was pleasant enough even on the pavements of the suburbs through which they passed, now that there were no shopping crowds to impede their progress.
Although it took them a little to the east of the shortest cross-country course to Dorking, Hemmingway had decided to bypass Croydon from fear of becoming involved with other lawless mobs in that densely populated area and the few people they met were hurrying along on their own concerns. Cars and vans, all on their way south, passed from time to time, but their drivers ignored Hemmingway's signals, so eventually he realised that it would be hopeless to try and cadge a lift until they were farther out of London. As they walked on Lavina gave him her version of the affair at the Dorchester and details of her internment. Then he retailed to her an account °f Derek's adventures and ended with his own exploit in getting away with the stolen car.
She laughed a lot at the way he had fooled the police into helping him to prepare the Rolls and, as Hemmingway's one 'dea was to keep her mind occupied so that she should not tire too quickly, he began to tell her some amusing episodes of the days when he had been struggling for a living in New York.
The vague antagonism that had arisen between them before the hold-up had now entirely disappeared and for the first time they were really discovering each other as individuals. Each found the other had more in them than they had previously supposed. Lavina displayed a practical streak in her views on people and affairs with which Hemmingway would not have credited her; and from having considered him as an almost monkishly seriously minded man she revised her opinion and decided that he was really a very cheerful and amusing person.
It was 8.30 when they had careered away from the 'Main Brace' in the Rolls and by 11 o'clock they were passing through Shirley. Neither of them had yet breakfasted and they both discovered suddenly that they were extremely hungry; so they began to look about for a place where they could get something to eat.
Here in the more distant suburbs there were more people about, as such districts had not been evacuated and comparatively few of their inhabitants had gone off on their own to the country. Most of them were either attending services at the churches or remaining in their own homes, killing time to the best of their ability until they could learn their fate.
In the shopping centres there were ration queues here and there in front of the food dealers who were now being supplied by the Government organisation that had been set up; but most of the other shops were closed, no buses were running and there were very few cars about.
Inquiries of people in the queues soon informed Hemmingway that he would not be able to get meat, fish, bread, butter or milk without having a ration card; but, although the grocers' stores had been sadly depleted in the last few days, they still had a certain amount of stock. At one Hemmingway managed to buy a tin of oxtail soup; at another some biscuits and potted shrimps; and at a third a tin of cherries.
To Lavina's joy they also found a chemist's shop that was open so she was able to get a comb, mirror, face cream, lipstick and powder; while Hemmingway added aspirins, a bottle of Evian, a bottle of lime-juice and two collapsible drinking cups to their store. Just as they were leaving she joked about his confession to having used up all her scent the night before, so he promptly bought her the most expensive bottle in the shop-
Having no tin-opener and being unable to buy one, Hem-mingway had got the chemist to open the tins for them and, as it would have been awkward for them to carry the open tins far, they turned into the first field that they came to on their way to Selsdon.
It was quite a small field—just a plot that had never been built on—between two fair-sized houses with long gardens. Crawling through a hole in its broken fence, they sank down gratefully in the long grass and began their picnic.
They had to eat out of tins and spread the shrimps on the biscuits with their fingers but after their long night out and the exertions of the morning the food tasted heavenly, and they both agreed that it was the best meal they had had for years.
'I think we're entitled to a bit of a rest now,' Hemmingway said when they had done.
'My dear,' she smiled, 'I don't think you'll ever get me on my feet again, anyway. I haven't walked so far for ages.'
'You'll have to walk much farther yet, unless we can get a lift from somebody. We've only covered about five miles so far and, if 1 possibly can, I mean to get you down to Stapleton tonight.'
'How far is it?'
Hemmingway got out his map and studied the country. 'About fifteen miles as the crow flies; that means at least twenty by the highways.'
'Twenty miles?' gasped Lavina.
'Sounds tough but it's not too bad, really. It's just past midday and if he started now an athlete could get down there by 'eatime. Even walking without effort one can cover three miles at hour so, for us, it would be about a seven hour trudge. Say We give ourselves two hours' rest and start at two o'clock, if we could keep going all the time we'd be there by nine. Let's allow fifteen minutes in every hour for a breather and we should still be able to make it at the latest by eleven. Think y°u can do it?'
Lavina yawned. 'I don't know, but I'll try.'
'You're a good guy when one gets to know you,' he smiled appreciatively. 'Say we don't reckon to get in till eleven, we'll have to average just over two miles an hour. You ought 0 be able to do that if you can only keep the old feet going °ne in front of the other.'
'You're a good guy too—once one gets to know you—and I'm getting to know you fast,' she laughed in reply. 'I expect I'll manage it somehow. But how about our waking up at two o'clock? If I sleep now I shall probably lie here like a log tin midnight.'
'Don't worry, I'm pretty good at that sort of thing; trained myself when I was a kid and I've found it mighty useful ever since to be able to drop off anywhere and wake again at will. As I've been up all night it's a bit of a risk but I'm going to chance it. A couple of hours' sleep now will set me up again for quite a time but if I don't have it I'll be too beat to get you over the last lap this evening.' They lay down among the long grass and wild flowers and were conscious only for a moment of their perfume in the heat before dropping off to sleep.
When Hemmingway woke it was a quarter past two and he felt that his gift had not let him down too badly. He roused Lavina and, after she had tidied her hair and attended to her face, they set off along the road towards Selsdon. It was pleasant walking at a leisurely pace through Addiscombe Woods and they took their first rest on the top of the hill there.