“From Scotland Yard, sir.”
“Scotland Yard?” echoed Mr. Rayner inquiringly. But the name did not seem new to him, as it did to me.
“Yes, sir; I’ve been sent after a woman named Sarah Gooch, from information received that she was in your service. Mr. Gervas Rayner I believe, sir?”
Why did he not own he was her brother? I thought to myself.
“Yes, that is my name. But what on earth do you want with my servant, Sarah Gooch?”
The man glanced at me. Mr. Rayner said—
“Go on. Never mind this lady; she is as much interested in the woman as I am. What do you want with my old servant Sarah?”
“Suspected of complicity in the Denham Court robbery, sir—some of the property traced to her.”
I started violently. This man, then, was not Sarah’s brother at all, but a detective who had been trying to extract information from me by a trick! Mr. Rayner stared full in his face for a few moments, as if unable to find words; then he exclaimed, in a low voice—
“Impossible!”