He touched his rifle as he spoke.
“You’ll do exactly as you’re told.”
Sir Clinton evidently had no wish to be distracted from his main problem. His voice had a ring in it which impressed even Arthur.
“What’s it all about?” he demanded from Wendover, in a lowered tone.
“Your uncle’s the murderer, it seems; and Sir Clinton’s got him trapped in the Maze.”
Arthur looked at him in amazement.
“I say, you know, Wendover, that’ll take a bit of thinking over, won’t it?”
He said no more; and Wendover could believe that Arthur, like himself, was conning over the whole of the Whistlefield case, and being brought up against the apparent impossibilities of the Chief Constable’s solution of the problem. At length Arthur lifted his head again.
“Well, if he didn’t do it, he has only to come out and say so. If he didn’t do it. . . .”
His voice died away into silence. Then he added: