Free Stone of Destiny by Ian Hamilton Page B

breeze-blown spray of Trafalgar’s fountains. I moved away from Gavin and watched the crowds and listened to the great noise which was soothing in its strength and impersonality. When I came back to the subway feeling less of a failure, I found Gavin talking to Kay and Alan. He was explaining what had happened.
    Nothing more was said about the Stone since we were all feeling pretty sick. Alan, with a cheerfulness that was not faked, and which did not grate, suggested that we should cross over the road and ‘eat our Christmas dinners’. It was only a few hours since we had fed, but we all suddenly realised that it was good advice. The human body seems to be able to go without sleep for lengthy periods, but the longer the period the more food is required. In the last stages of the expedition, when I had only catnapped during a period of over 100 hours, I found myself eating ravenously and continuously. After the meal, we crossed over Northumberland Avenue and sat in the Anglia and held a council of war.
    I told them in detail what had happened. Among the remarks the watchman had made to me was one which filled us all with dismay. He had told me that it was a dangerous business being in the Abbey after hours, for there were watchmen prowling round all night.
    To me this did not ring true. My information was that there was only one watchman, and I could not see him doing his rounds more than once every two hours. But, on the face of it, it was plausible. After all, I had been caught. My information might have been false, and if the watchman were correct we might as well press the starter and go home.
    We considered trying the same plan again the following night, but gave it up as too dangerous. I could have wept with impotence and shame. Here we sat in the centre of London; reivers, moss-troopers, pseudo men of action, frustrated by one bearded watchman. It seemed to me that we had failed, but it was unthinkable that we should go home yet. On the other hand a coarse and blundering attempt could only end in further failure, and bring disrepute down on our country and on ourselves.
    ‘Don’t forget we are wasting money,’ I said. ‘And the man who gave us it can ill afford it.’
    Kay’s voice came from the back of the car: ‘There are still more nights and more chances.’
    ‘We might break in from the outside,’ said Alan, who had not shown the slightest dismay at our initial failure.
    ‘Or we might try a cheeky attempt in daylight,’ I added, forgetting my cautious thoughts of a moment before.
    Alan summed up what we all thought.
    ‘Bruce watched his spider seven times. We’ve only tried once. Let’s go along to the Abbey and look for spiders.’
    We all laughed. Gavin started the engine and we turned into Whitehall and made once again for the Abbey.
    We stopped the car in Old Pie Street, and Gavin and Alan got out. I stayed with Kay because I did not want to be seen twice on the same night by the same watchman. The other two went off to prowl around and glean what information they could. They penetrated to the Dean’s Yard, and from the Dean’s Yard to the Cloisters, and returned to report that they had seen nothing but a drunken cockney lying in the gateway from the Sanctuary to the Dean’s Court.
    ‘We didn’t think it was the Dean himself,’ said Alan. ‘So we passed by on the other side.’
    We made several other excursions that night, but they were all as fruitless as the first, and towards eleven o’clock we decided to call it a day. We knew that in Glasgow our friends would be waiting and wondering and anxious, and wanting some report from us, but we had little to report to them, and we saw no reason to telephone them to tell them that we had failed. We went instead for some hot coffee, because the temperature was dropping fast, and indeed London was in for one of its coldest nights for many years.
    It was now late and the streets were full of drunks. The whole West End was jammed with people