"Well," said the chief constable, in a matter-of-fact voice, "I suppose we shall have to send out the drag-net for Herbert, after all…."
Dr. Fell glanced up mildly.
"Isn't there something you've forgotten?" he enquired. "Forgotten?"
"For instance," the doctor said, thoughtfully, "you were questioning Payne a moment ago. Why not ask him what he knows about it? Somebody had to take Timothy's statement over to the vault in the Governor's Room, you know. Does he know what was in it?"
"Ah," said Sir Benjamin, jerked out of his thoughts. "Ah yes. Of course." He adjusted his pince-nez. "Well, Mr. Payne?"
Payne's fingers flicked to his chin. He coughed.
"It may be so. Personally-I think you're talking nonsense. If Starberth had done any such thing, I think he ought to have told me about it. I was the logical one to tell. Not you, Mr. Saunders. Not you. -It is perfectly true, however, that he gave me a sealed envelope, inscribed with his son's name, to take to the vault."
"That's what you meant, is it, when you said you had been there before?" asked Dr. Fell.
"It is. The whole proceeding was most irregular. But — the lawyer made gestures of discomfort, as though his cuffs were sliding down over his hands and impeding them — "but he was a dying man, and he said this envelope was vitally concerned with the ceremony the heir had to go through. Not knowing what was in the other document, I naturally could not judge. His death was sudden; there might have been things which he had left undone, and which must be done under the terms of my trust. So I accepted. I was the only one who could undertake the mission, of course; I had the keys."
"But he said no word about murder to you?"