"If you didn't, I should very likely drop down in a fit," responded Hemingway.
They drove back to the police-station in depressed silence. Hemingway alighted there and went into the building. He found Inspector Colwall fortifying himself with very strong tea, and thankfully accepted a cup of this beverage.
"How are you getting on?" asked Colwall.
"I'm not," replied Hemingway frankly. "It reminds me of the Hampton Court maze more than of anything else. It doesn't matter what path you take: you always find yourself back at the starting-point again. Seems to me I'm trying to catch up with a regular Houdini. Handcuffs and locked chests would be nothing to this bird."
"I don't mind telling you I was glad to hand over the case to you," confided Colwall. "Of course, detection isn't, properly speaking, my line."
"It won't be mine by the time I'm through with this," said Hemingway, sipping his tea. "Here I've got no fewer than four hot suspects, and three possibles, all without alibis, and most of them with life-size motives, and I'm damned if I see my way to bringing it home to any of them."
"Four hot suspects?" said Colwall, working it out in his mind.
"Young Stephen, his sister, Mottisfont, and Roydon," said Hemingway.
"You don't reckon the fair young lady could have done it?"
"l, ve put her in as a possible, but I wouldn't lay a penny on her myself."