Chapter Thirty-Six
Safety at last – messages – lunch – more pieces of the puzzle – “Behold your moon-creature!”
Charlie’s handsome friend Roldo had warned his passengers that a rough landing might be in store. To Gladys’s relief he was wrong. Charlie noticed a landing strip and Roldo brought the ‘plane down safely and easily.
Gladys untangled herself and disembarked, expecting to see an aerodrome. Instead, she saw a big English manor house with a stone landing strip. A small hangar had been installed on what once must have been a wide lawn.
As she climbed out, she looked over the manor. Half the windows were shuttered up and the other half filthy. The vast gardens were weedy and overgrown. The beech-tree drive had more stumps than shading beeches, its gravel surface deeply rutted and d
