Teal raised his sleepy eyes to the calendar on the wall.
"A week next Friday," he said. "Are you superstitious?"
Essenden was pardonably annoyed.
"If you're supposed to be in charge of this case, Mr. Teal," he said testily, "I don't think much of the way you do your job. Is this the way you train your men to work, Cullis?"
"I didn't train him," said Cullis patiently. "April the first is All Fool's Day, isn't it?"
"I don't see the joke."
"It may be explained to you," said Cullis.
He stood up with a businesslike air, meaning that, so far as he was concerned, the interview had served its purpose. As a matter of fact, this story was a mere variation on a theme which Cullis was already finding wearisome. He had heard too much in a similar strain of late to be impressed by this repetition, although he was far from underestimating its significance. But he could not discuss that with Essenden, for there was something about Lord Essenden which sometimes made Cullis think seriously of murder.
"Let me know any developments," he said with curt finality.
Lord Essenden, it should be understood, though important enough to be able to secure interviews with the assistant commissioner, was not important enough to be able to dictate the course which any interview should take, and this fact was always a thorn in Essenden's vanity.