‘But my dear young people –’ for the first time during that interview the little man showed signs of impatience. ‘That is most obvious. Amongst your party – let us say, Mr Petrie’s party, as opposed to von Faber’s – there was a member of the famous Simister gang of America. Perhaps you have heard of it, Doctor Abbershaw. Colonel Coombe had been attempting to establish relations with them for some time. In fact, that was the reason why I and my pugnacious friend behind us were placed at Black Dudley – to keep an eye upon him. During the progress of the Dagger Ritual, Simister’s man eluded our vigilance and chose that moment not only to get hold of the papers, but also to murder the unfortunate Colonel. That, by the way, was only a title he adopted, you know.’
The three younger men remained unimpressed.
Martin shook his head.
‘Not a bad story, but it won’t wash,’ he said. ‘If one of our party stabbed the old boy, why do you all go to such lengths to keep it so quiet for us?’
‘Because, my boy,’ said Whitby testily, ‘we didn’t want a fuss. In fact, the police on the scene was the last thing we desired. Besides, you seem to forget the extraordinary importance of the papers.’
Again Martin shook his head.
‘We’ve heard all this before,’ he said; ‘and it didn’t sound any better then. To be perfectly frank, we are convinced that one of your people was responsible. We want to know who, and we want to know why.’
The little doctor’s face grew slowly crimson, but it was the flush of a man annoyed rather than a guilty person accused of his crime.
‘You tire me with your stupidity,’ he said suddenly. ‘Good God, sir, consider it. Have you any idea how valuable the man was to us? Do you know what he was paid for his services? Twenty thousand pounds for this coup alone. Simister would probably have offered him more. You don’t hear about these things. Government losses rarely get into the papers – certainly not with figures attached. Not the smallest member of our organization stood to gain anything at all by his death. I confess I was surprised at Simister’s man, unless he was double-crossing his own people.’
For a moment even Martin’s faith in his own theory was shaken.