The Home Guard Finds A Clue

The rest of the day and evening passed pleasantly enough. Indeed, the day formed a pattern for the rest of the week with Ginger improving his riding in the mornings, spending the afternoons around the farm or in the fields and the evenings either reading, talking or listening to the radio and discussing the war news. Occasionally there were guests for dinner, but nothing as grand as the Lord Lieutenant's visit that had been his baptism of fire to the county set.

It was near the end of the week, as the pair were returning from a foray across the fields, that they met the local Home Guard sergeant puffing up the lane towards the house.

"Sergeant Girling," Cub greeted him. "What brings you here in such a hurry?" he wanted to know.

"Ar, Master Nigel," the man gasped, trying to get his breath back. "We've found something on the mud flats!" Ginger looked at him with some concern. The man must have been in his late sixties and, judging by the redness of his face and the shortness of his breath, was not as fit as he might have been. "We think your pa ought ter see it."

"What is it?" asked Ginger, agog with curiosity. The man looked at him askance and Cub quickly made the introductions.

"Don't know that I ought rightly to say," replied the sergeant obliquely and maddeningly as far as Ginger was concerned. "Your pa is our Commanding Officer."

Cub was tempted to say that he, too, was an officer, and a serving one at that, as was Ginger, but he restrained himself. He had known Sergeant Girling since his childhood and no doubt the retired Co-operative clerk still regarded him as a schoolboy, despite his many adventures since leaving his educational establishment1.

Contenting himself with remarking that the last time he had been seen the Colonel was in his study, Cub carried on up the lane, leaving the sergeant toiling in his wake.

"Do you think he'll be alright?" queried Ginger anxiously, as they walked on. "He looked pretty red."

Cub glanced back. "He seems to be managing alright," he commented. "Come on, I want to be there when he meets the Guv'nor. He can hardly keep me out of a room in my own house."

The pair quickened their pace and were already in the Colonel's study by the time the sergeant was shown in. Cub kept a straight face at the surprise on the man's face.

"What is it, Sergeant?" demanded the Colonel sharply. "What have you got to report? Speak up!"

The ex-clerk hesitated, glancing at the two young men. Colonel Peters followed his gaze. "You can speak in front of Master Nigel, man," he told him with asperity. "And I vouch for Mr Hepplewhite; he is in the Royal Air Force."

Ginger opened his mouth, but closed it again without speaking. Somehow he felt that the Colonel was in no mood to have the question of his identity clarified.

Taking a deep breath, the Home Guard sergeant announced with unconscious drama, "We've found a body!"

There was total silence for a few seconds after the dramatic announcement.

1 King Of The Commandos Capt. W E Johns