"Yes. A very comfortable room."
"And what about breakfast?"
"You will have a cup of tea in half an hour—if you behave yourself in the meantime."
Banks laughed uncertainly.
"See here, captain, don't you think this joke has gone far enough?" he asked.
"Not at all," replied Wigmore. "My joke has just begun. Yours ended very quickly, on the floor of my sitting room—but that was your own fault. You are a blundering joker, Banks. You should have made sure that I was not at home before you went round shaking all the doors, and then crawled through the window. But that is a thing of the past, now, and so beyond mending. I hope you will derive more entertainment from my joke than you did from your own."
Banks had no answer to make to that. He fisted his big hands and breathed heavily.
"I must ask you now to step back to the farther wall of your room," said Wigmore.
Banks hesitated for a moment, then backed across the threshold and across the little room until his shoulders touched the farther wall.
"Stay there until I give you the word," said the old man.