'Then you really think it was an explosion? Now, my friend and I, we didn't quite figure it up that way.'
'Well, even a gas explosion, if there were any gas to explode, wouldn't quite explain the presence of a strange man in Captain Sarrasin's room.'
'Then you think that it was an attempt on the life of Captain Sarrasin?'
Mrs. Sarrasin contracted her eyebrows. Was Mr. Copping indulging in a sneer? Possibly some vague idea of the same kind grated on the nerves of Sir Rupert.
'I haven't had time to make any conjectures that are worth talking about as yet,' Sir Rupert said. 'Captain Sarrasin is not well enough yet to be able to give us any clear account of himself.'
'He will very soon be able to give a very clear account,' Mrs. Sarrasin said with emphasis.
'I have sent for doctors and police,' Sir Rupert observed.
'Before the house was put into a state of siege?'
'Before I had requested my friend Mr. Ericson to take command and do the best he could,' Sir Rupert said, displeased, he hardly knew why, at Mr. Copping's persistent questioning.
'The stranger who invaded Captain Sarrasin's room will have to explain himself, won't he—when your police come along?'