“I have had another bad bout,” he said apologetically. “I am so sorry, Geof, not to have seen you just now, only I might have been more sorry if I had. Now, you have something to tell me?”
“I have a good deal to tell you. First of all a great piece of news. Our new witness Campion has seen and recognized the man we are after.”
Over Gastineau’s face fell the smile of half-amused interest, with which one listens to an important trifle from a child. “Not the man whom he saw getting out of the window?”
“Yes. The very man. He is ready to swear to it.”
“Ah, then you have him?”
“Unfortunately, no. He has been seen and recognized and that is all.”
“Ah, that’s a pity.” To Herriard in any other mood his reception of the news would have been irritating. He seemed wilfully incapable of anticipating any advantage from this evidence. “And why did Mr. Campion stop there?”
“He saw the man in a cab last evening. Before he could get another to follow him up he had lost sight of it,” Herriard explained.
“Ah, that was a pity,” Gastineau repeated, with the same sarcastic drawl.
But the other ignored his tone. “Of course it was a terrible pity. Still, it has established that the man we want is about, and moreover it has refreshed Campion’s memory as to his identity.”