Amberley followed Felicity's short cut to Greythorne, this time successfully, and reached the house just after half-past five.
He found his cousin and Anthony Corkran having a late tea in the library and learned that Corkran had driven over in the early afternoon to get him to play golf. Not finding him he had persuaded Felicity to play instead. They had just returned from the links.
Felicity rang for a third cup and saucer, and poured out tea for Amberley. It appeared that Joan was suffering from a severe headache and had gone to bed immediately after lunch, leaving her swain disconsolate.
Amberley was politely sympathetic. Corkran said gloomily: "Mind you, I don't blame her. Brother Basil has to be seen to be believed today. He's spent a jolly morning finding fault with everything that's been done for the past six months. Oh, he's in a sweet mood, I can assure you."
"Why?" said Amberley.
Corkran held his cup out for some more tea. "Somebody's handed him a dollop of bad news. Up till then, everything was going fine. All full of bonhomie and good cheer. He even ate a couple of fried eggs for breakfast, which personally I found a pretty grim sight after champagne at four in the morning."
"Who brought this bad news?"
"A man with one eye and a wooden leg," said Corkran promptly. "He bore the appearance ofa seafaring man and - hold on a minute - yes, there was something vaguely sinister about him. We - we heard the thud of his wooden stump as it drew nearer across the hall."
A book hurtled towards him and was neatly fielded. "Rank bad shot," he commented, and put it down.
"Shut up, don't rag!" said Felicity. "That's one of the library books. Go on, Tony, who did bring the news?"