“But what about Mr. Foster, sir?” interrupted the Inspector, his perturbation overcoming his manners. “You know what he says. You wouldn’t say he drank, would you, sir? Not Mr. Foster?”
“I shouldn’t be at all surprised,” said the Colonel coolly, “if somebody wasn’t pulling Mr. Foster’s leg. And I shouldn’t be even surprised,” he added quite gently, “if the same people weren’t trying to pull yours too.”
“Lor’, sir!” gasped the Inspector, and lapsed into silence.
“In which case,” said the Colonel, very softly, “it’s our business to make them sorry for it. Very sorry indeed. Just bear that in mind, will you?”
By the expression on the Inspector’s face it seemed that he bore it with difficulty. The two walked on in silence, chewing the cud of the Colonel’s devastating theory. Along the road towards them, moving blithely and conversing with the utmost animation, came two figures.
“That’s Mr. Nesbitt, sir,” said the Inspector. “And that’s Mr. Doyle with him.”
“Doyle? That’s the feller who wrote all that twaddle in the Sunday Courier this morning, isn’t it?”
“He did say he was going to send in a report of the case,” agreed the Inspector a little uneasily. He had read the report through that morning, till he almost knew it by heart, and no more delighted Inspector of Police would have been found in the country; now his delight was beginning to show signs of waning.
“Humph!” observed the Colonel, busily putting two and two together and obtaining a perfectly correct answer. He glanced at the Inspector’s face and from the look of wounded bewilderment upon its surface deduced further that his colleague, though sorrowfully regarding the possibility that one of his legs might be a little longer than it was yesterday, was by no means sure of it; in any case, he had as yet not the faintest suspicion as to the identity of the author of this outrage. The Colonel decided not to enlighten him.
“About what I said just now, Cottingham, that the whole thing may be a hoax,” he said, “keep that to yourself for the time being. I may be wrong, and we must get to the bottom of it first.”