"Hello, Clive, it’s Rudolph. It’s your lucky day, old man. I had to go to the quartermasters, and just happened to ask the corporal about your daughter’s friend. Sergeant King had been there—he needed a new hat and also asked about a place to stay in Halifax. I checked discreetly at the mission house, and found out he spent last night there.
"Interestingly," the major continued, "it appears that this Sergeant King is in line for a Victoria Cross as well as a battlefield commission. I have been advised that after he suffered his wounds, he crawled to a machine gun nest full of Germans and wiped them out with a single hand grenade. That saved his comrades from being mowed down by the machine gunners and allowed them to forge ahead and win the battle. There had been a number of stragglers who were starting to run away, but once they saw Felix’s bravery they continued to fight."
Clive breathed a sigh of relief as well as more than a little astonishment at the news; there might be a chance to catch up to Felix, and who would have thought him capable of such acts of bravery. Not the Felix King he knew, he thought cynically.
Clive replied, "Rudolph, thank you, and I would appreciate if you could keep an eye on the sergeant, as much as you can. I think it’s time for me to take a trip to Halifax."
Clive told Muriel the news and told her not to wait dinner for him. Due to the late hour, he saddled Annabelle and rode back to the King Farm. Having heard voices downstairs, Izzy roused herself from the nap she had taken after the exhausting battle with her father, and went to find Muriel. "Muriel, I thought I heard you and Father speaking. Is there any news?"
Muriel, looking at Izzy’s face which was lit up with anticipation, did not want to give the girl false hope. On the other hand, though, she did not want to lie to her. She started, "Izzy, there has been word of Felix’s whereabouts, but it’s nothing concrete yet. Your father has gone to tell Mr. King the news, and they’ll decide how to handle it."
"I’ll tell them how to handle it!" replied Izzy quickly, reaching for her coat and heading for the door, "We should follow it up immediately! Tell me where he is, I’ll leave now!"
Ignoring her brash statement, Muriel caught up to Izzy and put a restraining hand on her shoulder. "Izzy, I think your father has a plan about how to handle this, I think we should leave it to him." When Izzy showed no signs of heeding Muriel, she tightened her grasp and continued emphatically, "Listen to me. Felix is in a very upset state of mind. This matter has to be handled delicately; I know you don’t want to do anything to jeopardize Felix’s return home. Don’t go running off, wait until your father gets home and we can find out what he has in mind."
Izzy turned from the door, disappointment clear on her face, but agreed to wait for her father. It was clear that Muriel would not tell her where Felix was, and so she really had no choice.
It was dark by the time Clive knocked on the door to the King Farm. Cecily stopped stirring the gravy for that night’s dinner, and answered it. "Hello, Mr. Pettibone, please come in."
"Thank you Cecily, I see that your family is about to sit down to dinner, but may I please see your father for a few minutes?"
"I’ll go get him," Cecily responded, and a few minutes later Alec came down the front stairs.
"Clive, I’m surprised to see you back so soon."
Clive advised in a low voice, "I have some news about Felix. Can we go somewhere where we can discuss this?" Alec nodded, pulled on his coat and told Cecily he would be outside and to start dinner without him.
Clive got right to the point, "My friend in Halifax told me that Felix is staying for the time being at a mission house. I think we should start out first thing in the morning to go there and speak to him." Clive intentionally left out the information about Felix’s bravery on the fields of war; he figured that Felix should disclose that information himself.
Alec agreed with Clive’s plan, but asked that it not be mentioned to any other member of the King family. "If it turns out to be a dead end, at least they won’t be disappointed. I’ll find some excuse to go to the mainland."
The two made plans to meet in time to get to an early ferry, and went their separate ways.
Clive was met at the door to his home by Izzy, who, without any preliminaries, told her father that she was going wherever she had to in order to find Felix. Actually, Clive had been pondering the advisability of bringing Izzy along, and had decided already in favor of such a move. He realized that he would need to use every resource at his fingertips to get Felix back to Avonlea.
When Clive advised Izzy of his plan, she was caught off guard as she had prepared for a long evening spent arguing with her father. Instead, she threw herself in his arms and thanked him. He then advised Muriel that he would need her to drive them to the ferry, she agreed, and the Pettibone family ate dinner and went to bed early in anticipation of the coming day.
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