‘When you state that you left the drawing-room, am I to understand that you left the deceased there?’

‘Everyone was there.’

‘And between that time, and the time when you discovered his body, you did not see him?’

‘No.’

‘What were you doing during that period?’

‘Changing, in my room.’

‘Thank you, sir,’ said the Inspector, making a note.

‘Done with me?’ Stephen asked. ‘Dinner – probably spoilt by now, of course – is still before me, I would respectfully point out to you.’

Cold-blooded devil! thought the Inspector. He said: ‘That will be all for the present.’

Stephen walked out of the room. Joseph, who had been watching him with a good deal of anxiety, smiled at the Inspector, and said: ‘He doesn’t mean the things he says, you know. The fact of the matter is he’s very like my poor brother. Both of them hasty-tempered, and bitter-tongued. A quick flare-up, and all over. Nothing sulky!’

The Inspector received this information politely if not very enthusiastically. He asked Joseph when he had last seen Nathaniel.

‘Miss Clare and I must have been the last people to have seen him alive,’ Joseph answered. ‘Everyone else had gone upstairs. I was going up with him. I wanted to have a talk with him. Alas, that I did not!’

‘How was that, sir?’

Joseph looked momentarily disconcerted, but apparently decided that since his tongue had betrayed him he must make the best of it. ‘To tell you the truth, Inspector, my brother was in a very bad temper, and I wanted to smooth him down! But he said he didn’t want to talk. Well, I mustn’t conceal anything, must I? I had stupidly left a step-ladder on the stairs, and my brother knocked it over, and – yes, he was very cross with me indeed! So I thought it wisest to let him cool off. Miss Clare and I went upstairs together a few minutes later.’

‘What had put Mr Herriard in a bad temper, sir?’

‘Oh, a mere nothing! Mr Roydon had been reading his play to us, and my brother didn’t like it.’

‘That doesn’t seem to be much of a reason, sir.’

Joseph gave an unhappy laugh. ‘I’m afraid it was quite enough reason for him, Inspector. That’s just the sort of thing that did upset him.’

The Inspector pondered this, and at length produced: ‘If he didn’t like to have it read to him, sir, why was it read?’

Complications were clearly arising. Joseph said: ‘Mr Roydon is a guest in the house. It would have been very difficult to have forbidden him to read his play, wouldn’t it?’

‘Seems queer-like to me, sir,’ was all the Inspector vouchsafed. ‘I’d like to see this Mr Roydon, please.’

‘Certainly, but I’m sure he knows nothing about the crime. I mean, it would be too preposterous! My brother had never laid eyes on him before he came down here yesterday. Shall I send him in to you?’

‘Yes, please,’ said the Inspector.