Chapter 6

He told himself that he had come on a fool's errand, and the extra absurdity was that he could not quite see how he had been induced to come. He had consistently refused: so had Palliser-Yeates; Archie as a prospective host had been halting and nervous; there was even a time when Lamancha, the source of all the mischief, had seemed to waver. Nevertheless, some occult force--false shame probably--had shepherded them all here, unwilling, unconvinced, cold-footed, destined to a preposterous adventure for which not one…