"I should have thought you would have arranged matters by this time," commented Craver, sarcastically. "However. I will go. Remember you have promised to remain in London for the time being."
"Yes," growled Lemby, savagely, "you've got the whip-hand of me."
"If you mean that I am likely to use the information supplied by Claudia, to prevent your leaving, Mr. Lemby, I have not got the whip-hand of you. I am not so mean as to employ tactics of a dishonourable nature. All I say is that if you will stay in England I am willing to help you in every way."
"Well, we'll leave it at that," said Lemby, ungraciously. "But, mind, I don't say that you will marry Claudia."
"I am content to wait," replied Craver, coolly, and passed through the door of the waiting-room at the same moment that a clerk opened it to say that Mr. Sandal was ready to see Mr. Oliver Lemby.
The lawyer was a tall, thin, dried-up man, with a clean-shaven face and two shrewd, twinkling black eyes. He had met Lemby before in connection with the marriage settlements of Claudia, and did not like him. Therefore Sandal received him coldly, and, having seated himself at his desk, waited to hear what he had called about. Lemby, by no means disconcerted by this chilly reception, plunged at once into the matter. And, being nervous, he was the more truculent.
"This is a pretty kettle of fish," he said, in his gruff way.
"If you are referring to the sad death of Sir Hector Wyke," said Sandal, in his dry, precise style, "it is a very painful matter."
"Why didn't you come down to Hedgerton to look into the affair?" asked Lemby. "Don't you know that I wrote to you?"
"I received your letter, Mr. Lemby; there was no need for me to go down personally. I sent a representative, who saw Sergeant Purse, and did what was required. My representative was at the inquest, at the burial, and at the police-office in Redleigh, where he learnt that no trace could be found of the assassin. But you, Mr. Lemby," added the lawyer pointedly, "were in the house when my late client was murdered. Have you come to tell me something likely to lead to the detection of the criminal?"