A week today at roughly 5.05 pm the Reverend Dr Halse walked out of the card room on the ground floor of George Warleggan’s impressive mansion and disappeared.
It had been a bruising encounter.
That pest, Poldark–more than a pest–a ruffian and a rogue–had challenged him and indeed any of his esteemed colleagues on the bench to “meet” him at any convenient time.
An outrage.
As he headed for the door he was heard muttering:
He is a traitor to his class and he WILL get his come-uppance–such men are dangerous and must not be tolerated!
Next meeting of the justices…!
If it were up to me alone, he’d be following Jim Carter to Bodmin Gaol or better still–the Antipodes.
And then he was gone–in a puff of self-righteous, sulfurous smoke.
* * *
In truth, he popped in a unit car and with Meredith by his side was driven the short distance to the unit camp.
There he was relieved of the wig and the costume and–Jekyll and Hyde-like–resumed his everyday guise as Robin.
In a trice the car was off again, speeding towards Bath and the London train.
All that was left of the Reverend Dr. Halse was a name on the dressing room door–
a pile of sombre 18th century clerical clothes, a beautifully woven wig and a faint smell of sulfur in the air….
Robin Ellis 