The sergeant's good-humour was impregnable.
"Give me time," he said, and the sentence was almost drowned in a loud knock at the door. An instant later Kilshaw rushed in.
"What's this, Dawson?" he cried to the Superintendent; "what's this about the murder?"
"You haven't heard, sir?"
"I went out of town to avoid this infernal row to-day, and am only just back."
Dawson smiled discreetly. He could understand that the proceedings of the day would not attract Mr. Kilshaw.
"But is it true," Kilshaw went on eagerly, "that Mr. Benham has been murdered?"
"Well, it looks like it, sir," and Dawson gave a full account of the circumstances.
"And the motive?" asked Kilshaw.