He paused for a moment. Then, the others not replying, he continued:—
‘I happened to notice your advertisement, M. La Touche, for Mlle. Lambert, and it set me thinking. And when I found, M. Mallet, that you and your friend were shadowing me, I thought still more. As a result of my cogitations I employed a private detective, and learnt from him the identity of both of you and what you were engaged on. When I learnt that you had found Mlle. Lambert, I guessed you would soon discover the typewriter, and sure enough, my detective soon after reported that you had purchased a second-hand No. 7 Remington. Then I had the carter, Dubois, shadowed, and I thus learnt that you had discovered him also. I have to compliment you, M. La Touche, on the cleverness with which you found out these matters.’
Again he paused, looking inquiringly and somewhat hesitatingly at the others.
‘Pray proceed, M. Boirac,’ said La Touche at last.
‘First, then, I offer you my apologies for the trick played you. I wrote the note which brought you here. I feared if I wrote in my own name you would suspect some trick on my part and refuse to come.’
‘Not unnaturally a suspicion of the kind did enter our minds,’ answered La Touche. ‘It is but fair to tell you, M. Boirac, that we are armed’—La Touche withdrew his automatic pistol from his pocket and laid it on a table at his hand—‘and if you give either of us the slightest cause for anxiety, we shall fire without waiting to make inquiries.’
The manufacturer smiled bitterly.
‘I am not surprised at your suspicions. They are reasonable, though absolutely unfounded, and your precautions cannot therefore be offensive to me. As I try to do everything thoroughly, I may admit this cut on my hand was also faked. I simply squeezed a tube of liquid red paint on to the handkerchief. I did it to account for my being alone in the hall when you arrived, which I thought necessary, lest you might refuse to enter.’
La Touche nodded.
‘Pray proceed with your statement,’ he said again.