Rex went red, as he always did when he was embarrassed.
“I feel very strongly about the house,” he said curtly and Tab saw that he had hurt his feelings, but Rex’s huff did not last long. He spoke of his voyage, the interesting places he had seen, and then: “You got my ring?”
“Yes, Rex, thank you, it is a beauty,” said Tab. “It seems to me to be worth a terrible lot of money.”
“It didn’t cost so much,” said the other carelessly. “I’ve got a rich way of thinking nowadays, Tab. I shudder at myself sometimes.”
They fell to discussing Rex’s immediate movements and Tab succeeded in persuading him to go to the hotel. He had a reason for this; knowing the lazy nature of his former companion, he guessed that if Rex once got himself settled down in the flat, he would never leave it.
Rex questioned him closely about the second tragedy, plying him with innumerable questions.
“Yes, I shall certainly have that place bricked up. I will put it in the hands of the builders right away,” he said. “And as you decided to chuck me out, perhaps you will come and dine pretty frequently.”
He sent for his trunks the following day and made a call upon Carver. Tab heard later that under the personal direction of Rex, all the deed boxes and other movables in the vault had been removed by a gang of workmen and that immediate preparations were being made to wall up this sinister chamber.
It was like Rex to take up with enthusiasm some unexpected hobby. Carver told him, when next they met, that Rex haunted the builders’ yard, was having elaborate plans drawn for a new house and was himself entering with enthusiasm into the mysteries of mortar-making and brick-laying.
“In fact,” said Tab, “poor Rex is making himself an infernal nuisance. He has these spasms. About three years ago, he decided, in defiance of his Uncle’s intentions, to become a great crime reporter, and spent so much time in the ‘Megaphone’ library, that the news editor kicked. Whenever he wanted a book, Rex had it; whenever he wanted to look up some old and forgotten crime, there was Rex, in the midst of a chaos of cuttings. The present fit will last exactly three weeks; after that, Rex will buy a large hammock and a large bed and spend his time alternately in one or the other!”