“Have you a family, sir?”
“I have a daughter, an only child. Mrs. Cumberford is not living.”
“And your daughter’s age, sir?”
“Seventeen. She is the same age as Orissa Kane.”
“Are the young ladies—er—interested in airships?”
Mr. Cumberford did not like these questions. He knew that a reporter is akin to a detective, and began to fear the youth was on the track of their secret. So he answered rather stiffly:
“Fairly so. Everyone seems interested in aviation these days. It interests me.”
Chesty saw he would not confess; so he tried another tack.
“Mr. Burthon is your brother-in-law, I believe.”
Mr. Cumberford nodded.