"Look here, do you want me?" asked Hugh.
Before the Inspector could answer, White said: "Yes, we do want you. You can tell the Inspector just what happened at that shooting-party yesterday."
Hugh sighed. "You're barking up the wrong tree. My evidence is nothing but hearsay, and valueless."
"Well, there's no reason why you should object to telling what you know, is there?" demanded White. "Seems to me it might have a pretty important bearing on poor Wally's murder - a darned sight more than that kid Vicky's happening to be around!" he added scathingly.
The Inspector looked penetratingly at Hugh, and said: "Yes, sir, I should be obliged if you would accompany us to the house."
Chapter Seven
The Inspector, having been shown White's study window, and having verified the fact that from it no view of the bridge could be obtained, turned his attention to Hugh, and requested him to explain White's reference to the shooting-party of the day before, Hugh replied in a voice calculated to depress excitement that he supposed White to be referring to Wally Carter's carelessness in moving from his stand. "Instead of remaining where he was posted," he said, "he apparently wandered some way along the hedgerow, with the result that he very nearly got himself shot. If you want to know any more about it, you should ask Mr. Steel, or Prince Varasashvili, who were both in a position - which I was not - to see what happened."
"Prince who, sir?" demanded the Inspector.
Hugh repeated the name, explaining the Prince's identity. It was evident that the Inspector thought the entrance into the case of a foreigner so exotically named at once invested it with immense possibilities. He said, that he would have to see the gentleman himself. He next inquired of Hugh how long he had been at Palings before encountering Vicky, and as it appeared from Hugh's answer that, at the time of the murder, he had not arrived there, he asked him some searching questions about his journey from the Manor.
Hugh had driven himself to Palings in his own car, and admitted cheerfully that he had come through the village, and past the Dower House. But when urged to try to remember whether he had seen anyone in the neighbourhood of the Dower House, he shook his head. "No, I don't think I saw anyone."