"I have," responded Hemingway "I'm told you hold a watching brief for Miss Fanshawe, sir."
"By Miss Fanshawe, I should think," said Hugh. "I wish you'd put her under lock and key till all this is over."
"The trouble is, I'm hampered," explained the Inspector. "Who's the gentleman with the jaw, sir?"
"Steel."
Robert Steel had broken into the flood of Janet's conversation to address Vicky, in rather a rough voice. "Vicky, what are you doing here? You'd no business to come!"
"Oh, but I had, Robert! I told you I'd been entangled in the meshes."
"And I told you you were a little idiot! You've nothing to do with the case at all."
"But, darling Robert, I've got far more to do with it than you have, because I was there, and you weren't," Vicky pointed out.
"Oh, how thankful you must be that you weren't there!" said Janet earnestly. "It was dreadful! And you might have been, only, of course, I'm very glad you weren't, because it would have made it worse for me. I mean, inviting you, and then that happening!"
"What on earth are you talking about?" said Steel. "You didn't invite me!"