Read "The Black Gang" by H.C. McNeile online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
A quarter of an hour later the two young men stepped into Piccadilly. Evidently Phyllis was not proposing to turn up, and nothing was to be gained by remaining. The next move lay with the other side, and until it was played it was merely a question of marking time. At the entrance to the Ritz they separated, Peter turning eastwards to keep some mysterious date with a female minor star of theatrical London, while Hugh strolled along Berkeley Street towards his house. At times a faint smile crossed his face at the thought of Peterson devoting his young brain to the matter of starving Austrians, but for the most part a portentous frown indicated thought. For the life of him he couldn't see what was going to happen next. It appeared to him that the air wanted clearing; that in military parlance the situation was involved. And it was just as he was standing in Berkeley Square waving his stick vaguely as a material aid to thought, that he felt a touch on his arm.
"Excuse me, sir," said a voice at his elbow, "but I would like a few words with you."