“You’re welcome, sir, I’m sure,” rejoined Mrs. William smilingly. “Good-afternoon, sir.”
“Good-afternoon.”
Mrs. William popped back into her lodge again, and the two struck into the main road.
Roger’s pent-up emotions burst forth as soon as they were out of earshot. “There!” he exclaimed. “What do you think of that, eh?”
“Extraordinary!” Alec ejaculated, hardly less excited.
“But what a bit of luck just to hit on possibly the one person who would have been willing to give us all the information. Luck? It’s positively uncanny. Well, I never guessed that detecting was as easy as this.”
“We’re going straight after this man Prince, then?”
“You bet we are. We want to catch our bird before he flies.”
“You think he intends flying?”
“Most probably, I should say,” Roger replied, striding along the dusty road at top speed. “He’s only been in the place three weeks, you see, so he evidently came with the full intention of doing what he has done; now the job’s accomplished there’s no need for him to stay any longer. Oh, he’s a clever one, is Master Prince. But not quite clever enough.”