201.Chapter Eighteen（2）

thesavagecuthimshortand，takinghishand，affectionatelypressedit。

「helmholtzwaswonderfultome，」bernardresumed，afteralittlepause。「ifithadn』tbeenforhim，ishould…」

「now，now，」helmholtzprotested。

therewasasilence。inspiteoftheirsadness–becauseofit，even；fortheirsadnesswasthesymptomoftheirloveforoneanother–thethreeyoungmenwerehappy。

「iwenttoseethecontrollerthismorning，」saidthesavageatlast。

「whatfor？」

「toaskifimightn』tgototheislandswithyou。」

「andwhatdidhesay？」askedhelmholtzeagerly。

thesavageshookhishead。「hewouldn』tletme。」

「whynot？」

「hesaidhewantedtogoonwiththeexperiment。buti』mdamned，」thesavageadded，withsuddenfury，「i』mdamnedifi』llgoonbeingexperimentedwith。notforallthecontrollersintheworld。lshallgoawayto-morrowtoo。」

「butwhere？」theothersaskedinunison。

thesavageshruggedhisshoulders。「anywhere。idon』tcare。solongasicanbealone。」

fromguildfordthedown-linefollowedtheweyvalleytogodalming，then，overmilfordandwitley，proceededtohaslemereandonthroughpetersfieldtowardsportsmouth。roughlyparalleltoit，theuplinepassedoverworplesden，tongham，puttenham，elsteadandgrayshott。betweenthehog』sbackandhindheadtherewerepointswherethetwolineswerenotmorethansixorsevenkilometresapart。thedistancewastoosmallforcarelessflyers–particularlyatnightandwhentheyhadtakenhalfagrammetoomuch。therehadbeenaccidents。seriousones。ithadbeendecidedtodeflecttheuplineafewkilometrestothewest。betweengrayshottandtonghamfourabandonedair-lighthousesmarkedthecourseoftheoldportsmouth-to-londonroad。theskiesabovethemweresilentanddeserted。itwasoverselborne，bordonandfarnhamthatthehelicoptersnowceaselesslyhummedandroared。