‘I give you my word, Mr. Nolan, that my activity in this case is now entirely at an end. I have found out this evening all that I wished to know, and perhaps more than I wished to know. I shall return to town on Monday morning, and Bedfordshire will know me no more.’ He paused, and added: ‘At least, it will know me no more as a private inquiry agent.’
‘Or motor-car expert,’ said Nolan.
Richard laughed.
‘I was merely asking you,’ Richard resumed, ‘how far you had got, in the hope that possibly I might be able to simplify matters for you.’
‘You are very good,’ said Nolan, with an indescribable accent of irony—a bantering tone which, however, was so good-humoured that Richard could not take exception to it—‘you are very good.’
‘You have found out, I presume, something concerning the chalk-pit?’
‘Oh yes,’ said Nolan, ‘I have found out something concerning the chalk-pit.’
‘And you know what the crash Was early this morning?’
‘I have a notion,’ said Nolan.
‘And, since I saw your inquisitive face at the window of that stable to-night, you know what that stable contains?’