The detective changed the conversation abruptly.
“What do you propose doing, Mr. Brett?”
“I purpose reading a chapter in ‘The Stowmarket Mystery,’ written by your friend, Mr. Holden.”
They heard a loud rat-tat on the outer door.
“Probably,” continued Brett, “this is its title.”
Smith entered with a telegram. It was in the typed capitals usually associated with Continental messages. It read:
“Johnson leaves Naples to-night with others, I travel same train.—HOLDEN.”
The barrister surveyed the simple words with an intensity that indicated his desire to wrest from their context its hidden significance.
Winter, more subject to the influences of the hour, puffed his cigar furiously.
“You arrange your words to suit the next act for all the world like an Adelphi play,” he growled.