"Well, I don't, sir. I was brought up very strict. I generally do a bit of carpentering."
"That's worse," said Hemingway.
After a discreet pause, the Sergeant ventured to enquire what were his chief's impressions of the case they were bound for.
"It's a great mistake to start off with a lot of preconceived ideas," replied Hemingway. "Which is why you'll never see me do such a thing. It'll be time enough for me to go getting impressions when I've had a look at the dramatis personae. Not that I want to look at them, mind you! From what the Superintendent told me, you'd find it hard to pick out a set of people I wouldn't rather not look at."
"Sounds to me as though it might be an interesting sort of a case," suggested the Sergeant, in cajoling accents. "Stands to reason it's going to be a teaser, or the locals wouldn't have called us in."
"That's where you're very likely wrong," said the disillusioned Inspector. "Whenever we get called in to a crime in classy country surroundings, you may bet your life it's because the Chief Constable plays golf with half the suspects, and doesn't want to handle the thing himself."
Events were to prove him to be to a certain extent justified. Almost the first thing that the Chief Constable said to him was: "I'm not going to pretend I'm not glad to hand over this business to you, Inspector. Very awkward case: most astounding! I've known the murdered man for years. Know his brother too. I don't like it."
"No, sir," said the Inspector.
"What's more," said the Chief Constable, "it's a damned queer business! Can't see myself how the murder can possibly have been committed. Of course, our Detective-Inspector's away, sick. This is Inspector Colwall, who's had charge of the case up till now."
"Glad to know you," said Hemingway, mentally writing Colwall down as a painstaking man who had probably missed every vital point in the case.