‘Well, it is a lucrative business,’ said Mottisfont, with sudden candour. ‘Of course, it’s frowned on by the authorities, but we needn’t go into that now. There are always two ways of looking at a thing, and I’m not at all ashamed of selling arms to China. What’s more, Nat would soon have come round to my point of view.’

‘Nat,’ said Joseph, in a deep voice, ‘was the Soul of Honour. He would never have consented.’

The Inspector looked at him. ‘You weren’t in his confidence, sir?’

‘Not about business matters,’ confessed Joseph. ‘You see, I’ve never had the least head for that sort of thing. I chose to follow Art, and though I daresay many people would think me a fool, I’ve never regretted it.’

‘And you, sir?’ asked Hemingway, addressing Stephen. ‘Just what did you know about this?’

‘The bare facts. My uncle had discovered the gun-running racket, and he wasn’t pleased about it. In fact, he was damned angry.’

‘Nathaniel was too good a business man not to have seen reason, in face of the balance-sheets during the past three or four years!’ said Mottisfont. ‘I don’t mind admitting that we hadn’t been doing well.’

The Inspector said: ‘If it’s all the same to you, sir, I’d like to know how things stand. What are your Articles of Association? What happens to Mr Herriard’s shares?’

‘They were to be offered to the remaining shareholders pro rata,’ replied Mottisfont. ‘A very ordinary arrangement.’

‘That is to say that you would then have a two-thirds interest in the company, and Mr Stephen Herriard one-third?’

‘Certainly.’

‘What about the valuation?’

Stephen removed his pipe from his mouth. ‘On the last three years’ trading. Doesn’t the plot thicken?’

‘I suppose you know what you mean by that! I can only say that I don’t!’ snapped Mottisfont.

‘I just think that things have panned out very luckily for you,’ smiled Stephen.

This remark provoked Mottisfont to such an explosion of wrath that not only Joseph, but Blyth too, intervened. While these three voices strove against each other, Stephen stood smoking his pipe, and grinning sardonically, and the Inspector divided his attention between his demeanour and those of Mottisfont’s agitated utterances which he was able to hear.

Again and again, and with tears in his voice, Joseph begged Mottisfont not to say what he must later regret; but the only effect this had on Mottisfont was to make him shout that he had had enough of Joseph’s meddling ways, and would not be surprised to find that he had been in league with Stephen from the start.

The obvious inference not only shocked Joseph, but gave him an opportunity of showing his audience that he could enact a tragic rôle just as well as the character-parts in which his wife said he was so good. Horror, grief, and righteous indignation all infused his voice as he refuted this accusation; and, as he turned away from Mottisfont, he almost tottered.

The Inspector, though not unappreciative of the spirited scene he was witnessing, thought it time to bring it to a close. He said that he did not think he need trouble the actors any more at present. Stephen at once strolled out of the room; and after delivering himself of a few trembling remarks about the entire Herriard family, Mottisfont also went away. The Inspector looked at Joseph, but Joseph showed no disposition to follow suit. He said, when the door had shut behind Mottisfont: ‘Nerves play strange tricks on us poor humans! I think you, Inspector, must have seen too much to attach importance to the foolish things a man will say under nervous stress. This has been a severe shock to my old friend Mottisfont. It has thrown him off his balance. You must believe that!’