"I don't pretend to understand you, Mr. Amberley. What you say sounds to me like gibberish."
"I expect it does," agreed Amberley. "You'll have to trust me all the same. Now, are you going to detail a man to keep an eye on Brown, or do you wish me to get on to the chief constable first?"
"I suppose we can have him watched if you make a point of it," the inspector said ungraciously.
Amberley nodded. "Any one of your promising young men will do. The more obvious the better. But watch him damned closely, Inspector. I'll see you again in a day or two. My respects to Colonel Watson. Good morning."
He drove back to Upper Nettlefold and stopped at the station to buy a paper. The ten-thirty from London came in while he was standing by the bookstall, and he turned, idly surveying the passengers who alighted.
From the rear portion of the train a thin, middle-aged man got out with two suitcases. He was quietly and respectably dressed and looked like a superior servant. He saw Mr. Amberley at once, and while he sought in his waistcoat pocket for his ticket, covertly regarded him.
Amberley's eyes, wandering along the platform, came to rest on him and grew intent. The man picked up his suitcases again and walked down the platform towards the barrier. As he came abreast of Amberley, he shot a quick, furtive look up at him. But Mr. Amberley had spread open the paper, and his face could not be seen.
Chapter Eight
Fountain's new butler seemed, when Amberley saw him, to be settling down quite well at the manor. He was a rather deprecating man with shy, brown eyes and a bald top to his head. Anthony Corkran said that he was all right in his way, but a bit too assiduous. You were always tripping over the man. He supposed one couldn't blame him for making himself pleasant to the other servants, but he showed rather too many signs of growing thick with Collins for Anthony's taste.
It may have been this piece of information, so carelessly dropped, that made Amberley favour the newcomer with a long, hard stare when he first saw him. Baker gave a polite smile and turned away towards the drawing-room door to announce Amberley.