3: The Warrant
COLONEL SANDERSTEAD came down to breakfast in a dissatisfied frame of mind; and as his meal proceeded, he found that his feelings were not improving. Behind his quiet exterior he was acutely sensitive to any slight changes in the social atmosphere; and Jimmy Leigh’s behaviour on the previous night had been unusual enough to set the Colonel thinking. He had been moody and erratic in his talk; and that had disturbed the Colonel vaguely, for although Jimmy was often whimsical, he seldom showed the morose kind of humour which he had displayed so freely on the night before. He had fidgeted and snapped all through dinner, looking at his watch again and again, as though he found the time dragging. His talk had been disconnected; and more than once the Colonel had found him so inat
