"Positive. He turned his head as I came out of the inspector's room. That inspector-fellow is going to ask what his business is. With all due deference to Inspector Tomlinson I could have told him the answer. He'll dish up some cock-and-bull story of having lost something, but if he didn't follow us to try and find out just what we were going to tell the police, I'm a Dutchman." He hooted violently at an Austin Seven which was wavering undecidedly in the middle of the road. "And I wouldn't mind betting that he overheard every word we said in that room."
"It does look like it, but wasn't there a bobby in the charge room?"
"There was when we came out, but do you suppose a clever fellow couldn't have got rid of him for quite as long as he wanted?"
"Might, of course. But how the devil did Strange know we were coming here to-day?"
"Well, we've talked about it pretty freely, haven't we?"
"In our own house, Chas!"
"Also while we were getting the car out of the ditch. You said: "If they don't buck up with that horse we shan't have time to get to Manfield and back before lunch."'
"I didn't say anything about the police-station, did I?"
"I don't remember. But whatever you said it looks as though you were overheard, and Mr. Michael Strange thought it worth his while to follow us."
Peter sat pondering it for a while. "Of course he might have been concealed in the wood, but, dash it! he must be pretty acute if he connected a visit to Manfield with the police! Why, half the countryside goes to shop there! No, it looks to me as though someone told him."