“That is so,” Sir Edward admitted.
Mr. Coulson shook his head.
“I told that reporter fellow all I knew about him,” he said. “He was an unsociable sort of chap, you know, Sir Edward, and he wasn’t in any line of business.”
“H’m! I thought he might have been,” the Minister answered, glancing keenly for a moment at his visitor. “To tell you the truth, Mr. Coulson, we have been a great deal bothered about that unfortunate incident, and by the subsequent murder of the young man who was attached to your Embassy here. Scotland Yard has strained every nerve to bring the guilty people to justice, but so far unsuccessfully. It seems to me that your friends on the other side scarcely seem to give us credit for our exertions. They do not help us in the least. They assure us that they had no knowledge of Mr. Fynes other than has appeared in the papers. They recognize him only as an American citizen going about his legitimate business. A little more confidence on their part would, I think, render our task easier.”
Mr. Coulson scratched his chin for a moment thoughtfully.
“Well,” he said, “I can understand their feeling a bit sore about it. I’m not exactly given to brag when I’m away from my own country—one hears too much of that all the time—but between you and me, I shouldn’t say that it was possible for two crimes like that to be committed in New York City and for the murderer to get off scot free in either case.”
“The matter,” Sir Edward declared, “has given us a great deal of anxiety, and I can assure you that the Home Secretary himself has taken a strong personal interest in it, but at the same time, as I have just pointed out to you, our investigations are rendered the more difficult from the fact that we cannot learn anything definite concerning this Mr. Hamilton Fynes or his visit to this country. Now, if we knew, for instance,” Sir Edward continued, “that he was carrying documents, or even a letter, similar to the one you have just handed to me, we might at once discover a motive to the crime, and work backwards until we reached the perpetrator.”
Mr. Coulson knocked the ash from his cigar.
“I see what you are driving at,” he said. “I am sorry I can be of no assistance to you, Sir Edward.”
“Neither in the case of Mr. Hamilton Fynes or in the case of Mr. Richard Vanderpole?” Sir Edward asked.