He paused, and brushed a hand over blank eyes.
`Ha,' he went on, dully, `Odd. That's odd. You said my "stolen" hat, Hadley. Yes, the top-hat was stolen. That's, quite right; how did you know it was the stolen hat they found on Philip?'
Hadley was irritable. 'I don't know. They told me over the phone. But they said General Mason discovered the body, and so..;'
`Ah,' muttered Sir William, nodding and pinching the bridge of his nose. `Yes. Mason was at the house on Sunday, and I daresay I told him. I.'
Dr Fell leaned forward, So,' he said, `it was a new hat, Sir' William,?'
`Yes. I told you °
'An opera hat,' Dr Fell mused, `which you were wearing for the first time…. When was it stolen'?'
`Eh? Oh. Saturday night. When I was coming home from the theatre. We'd turned off Piccadilly into Berkeley Street.
It was a muggy night, rather warm, and all the windows of
the car were down. Just opposite Lansdowne Passage. Simpson slowed down to let some sort of blind man with a tray of pencils, or something, get across the street. Then somebody jumped out of the shadows near the entrance to the passage, thrust his arm into the rear of the car, twitched off my hat, and ran.'