‘He came about this time in the morning, I suppose?’
‘Yes, and a confoundedly silly time it was to come. He was to have been here at six for the morning exercise, but he missed his train, so he said, in London.’
‘I understood so from him. Just one question more, sir. When was the arrangement about his visit made?’
‘Some days before; I think it was on Monday evening I got his wire asking would Thursday suit me.’
‘This is the man you mean, I presume?’ and Tanner took out Cosgrove’s photograph.
The colonel nodded as he answered: ‘That’s he.’
‘And there was nothing, sir, in the whole episode that seemed to you suspicious or otherwise than it appeared on the surface?’
‘Not a thing.’
Tanner rose.
‘Allow me then, sir, to express my thanks for your courtesy. That is all I want to know.’