Barker shifted uneasily. “From me.... Yes!”
“That isn’t quite what I asked you,” continued Anthony relentlessly.
“By Moses,” cried the Inspector, “this case fairly beats the band for a lot of tight-lips.”
Barker looked from one to the other. Then he suddenly seemed to realize the value to himself of the information that was his to give.
“The night before last,” he answered a trifle obstinately, perhaps sullenly is the happier word, “he won a considerable amount from a brother officer of mine.”
“Major Hornby?”
Lieutenant Barker bowed.
Anthony turned to the Inspector. “Inspector,” he said, “gentlemen are traditionally ‘tight-lipped’ when it comes to what they regard as ‘telling tales.’ I think you have misjudged Lieutenant Barker.”
Barker blushed, he was the type of Englishman that finds praise embarrassing. But Baddeley did not take his semi-rebuke passively.
“Gentlemen do lots of funny things,” he declared. “Even to fracturing the Sixth Commandment.”