"Is it after Sir Adam, sir?" breathed the agent.
"No. No suspicion of him. It's after the other I told you of. Hush! Better be silent."
The agent put his pipe away. Karl stood at the open window. Old Betty, the ancient servant, came in with a scared face. She was a little deaf, but not with a deafness like Hopley's over the way.
"It's all right, Betty," called out her master. "Only looking to the drains and spouts."
Satisfied in one sense of the word--for in truth it was readily seen by the most unprofessional eye that there were no means afforded for concealment in the shallow-built cottage--the officer soon joined them again. He had not had really a suspicion of the cottage, he said by way of apology: it was merely a thought that crossed him. Mr. Smith, however, did not seem inclined to take the matter quite indifferently now, and accosted him.
"Now that you are satisfied, sir, perhaps you will have no objection to tell me who the individual may be, that you have fancied I would harbour in my house. I heard before from Sir Karl that you were after some one."
From the tone he spoke in, a very civil tone, tinged with mockery, the detective caught up the notion that Smith already knew; that Sir Karl must have told him: therefore he saw no occasion for observing any reticence.
"When you know that we are looking for Philip Salter, you need not be so much surprised that we have cast a thought to this house as Salter's possible occasional refuge, Mr. Smith."
The very genuine astonishment that seized hold of Smith, pervading his every look, and word, and gesture, was enough to convince those who saw it that he was unprepared for the news.
"Philip Salter!" he exclaimed, gazing from one to the other, as if unable to believe. "Philip Salter! Why, is he here? Have you news that he is back in England?"