"Did he tell you that he expected a visitor?"
"No. The ring came at the door about twenty or fifteen minutes to seven, and he bolted away, asking me to wait."
"And he did not return?" said the officer, musingly.
"How the deuce could he, when the man had knifed him?"
"No, of course not," said the sergeant, soothingly, for Lemby was a difficult witness to deal with. "You were a friend of Sir Hector's?"
"Yes, great friend."
"What do you know about him?"
"What everybody else knows. Everything I know is in the newspapers, as these infernal reporters have been smelling round here."
"Was there anything in Sir Hector's past life to lead you to suppose that he had some secret likely to bring about his violent death?"
"No. What a dashed roundabout way you have of asking questions! Why don't you trace that bicycle and catch the assassin?"