“He turned up at my office the other day. I could see he had something in the wind. Even with his iron nerve the delay must have been fretting him, for there was always the possibility that we should get the man, and then the secret, whatever it was, would be out.
“I tried a bluff. I asked him where Wilton-on-Sea was, and said I wanted to go there. All I knew was that it was close to this place. He would not let me go alone, for he did not know how much I knew, and so we came down, and watched for those wretched days which have put years on to my life.
“I had to pretend to take to drink to throw dust in his eyes.
“When he found Sir Ronald in such a dramatic fashion, I realised that things had come to a crisis. There was danger, real and personal, in the air. With supreme bluff he introduced me, and I must confess he took me completely by surprise. When I saw Lewis coming, for a moment all my ideas crumpled like a pack of cards, and I thought I had made a colossal fool of myself; but when I realised who it was, I saw the whole game. He would not let him out of his sight, nor allow me a word with him.
“He saw his one chance was to get the document out of him before I had a chance.
“But he was one too good for me at the end. When he slipped out I never thought he would make a bolt for it like that.”
He finished his story, and looked at the others.
Allery was scrutinising the end of his cigar. Mabel was deeply distressed.
“You’ve been working pretty hard lately, I suppose,” said the former.
Sinclair started: “I am always pretty hard at work,” he said.