`Then if you don't mind, I should like' to ask…?’
'Eh?' said Sir William, blankly. `Oh. No, no. Not at all. Carry on.' He kept peering ahead into the mist.
The car bumped. Sir William turned and said: `I was very fond of the boy, you see"
`Quite,' said Dr Fell, gruffly. `What did they tell you over the phone, Hadley?'
`Just that. That the boy was dead; stabbed in some way. And that he wore a golf suit and Sir William's top-hat. It was a relay call from the Yard, Ordinarily, I shouldn't have
got the call at all. The matter would have been handled by the local police station, unless they asked the Yard for help. But in this case
`Well?'
`I had a feeling that this damned hat business wasn't sheer sport. I left orders — and got smiled at behind my back for it, that if any further hat antics were discovered, they should be reported to the Yard by the local station, and sent through Sergeant Anders directly to me.'
`How did the people at the Tower know it was Sir William's hat?'
`I can tell you that,' snapped Sir William, rousing himself. `I'm tired of picking up the wrong hat when I go out in the evenings. All top-hats look alike in a row, and initials only confuse you. I have Bitton stamped in gold inside the crown of the formal ones, opera hats and silk ones; yes, and bowlers too, for that matter.' He was speaking rapidly and confusedly, and his mind was on other things. `Yes, and come to think of it, that was a new hat, too. I bought it when I bought the Homburg, because my other. opera hat got its spring broken…'