‘Get along now, Mr Daunt,’ he answered. ‘You’re trying to pull my leg.’
‘No. The thing’s a fake right enough. Cosgrove was at the boathouse that night.’
Tanner stared incredulously.
‘You seem in earnest,’ he said slowly. ‘But you’ve made a mistake. I went into it carefully. There’s no doubt it’s sound.’
‘It’s you that have made the mistake,’ Daunt answered pleasantly, and he went on to tell the Inspector what he and Lois had done, and all they had discovered.
To say that Tanner was amazed and disappointed would be to understate the case. He was woefully chagrined.
‘God bless my soul!’ he cried, ‘but that sort of takes a chap down. Here was I looking down on you and that splendid girl as a pair of meddling nuisances, and I’m blowed if you haven’t had it over on me all the time.’
‘Well,’ said Jimmy, ‘tit for tat.’
The Inspector eyed him almost aggressively.
‘And what now?’ he demanded.