"You know who the mortgagee is?" he asked.
"Who?" said both at once.
The Colonel on tiptoe led them out into the hall, and showed them through a narrow window Alf sitting at his wheel, looking very funny.
"Our friend of the scene in the Town Hall yesterday," he whispered. "When I went to the bank yesterday to insure the house against bombardment, the clerk looked surprised and said—You know it's already insured. I said—Who by? He turned up a ledger and showed me the name."
Mr. Trupp got into his car, wrapping himself round with much circumstance.
"To Morgan and Evans," he said to Alf.
In the solicitors' office he produced his cheque-book.
"I've been seeing Mrs. Lewknor," he said. "I'll pay off your client now and take over the mortgage myself."
He wrote a cheque then and there, and made it out to Alfred Caspar, who was forthwith called in.
"I'm paying you off your mortgage, Alf," he said. "Give me a receipt, will you?"