Baker's lean cheeks flamed suddenly. He took a step towards, the Inspector, his fists clenched. "What are you getting at?"
"Now, what is there for you to be all hot-up over in that?" wondered the Inspector.
"Come on, out with it! What are you nosing round after? Supposing I did pass Palings? What the bloody hell's it got to do with you?"
"Don't you take that tone with me, my lad!" said the Inspector. "I know how you went out to Palings twice yesterday, to see Mr. Carter. What did you want with him, eh?"
"If you know I went twice to see the dirty bastard, you ought to know that too! Go and ask him, if you don't!"
"Very clever, but it won't wash," said the Inspector. "You'd better come clean! Trying to put the black on him, weren't you?"
The flush returned. "I'll knock the teeth down the throat of the lying swine who says so!"
"Oh, lay off that stuff!" the Inspector said, roughly. "You went out to Palings, ranting about Mr. Carter having put your sister in the family way '
"Damn you, keep your ugly trap shut! So that's the game, is it? Well, you can tell Mr. Lousy Carter that my sister's got her rights, and he needn't think he can scare me out of bringing him to book! When the Red Flag's raised in this country, it'll be him and them like him that '
"Stow it! You went to Palings to blackmail Mr. Carter for five hundred pounds, didn't you?"