‘He’s a wise old bird if he can do that,’ said Alleyn. ‘Mamma, I’ve asked Miss Agatha Troy if she will lunch here with you tomorrow. She says she will. Do you mind? I shan’t be here.’

‘But I’m delighted, darling. She will be charming company for me and for Mr Bathgate.’

‘What the devil—!’

‘Mr Bathgate is motoring down tomorrow to their cottage to see his wife. He asked if he might call in.’

‘It’s forty miles off his course, the little tripe-hound.’

‘Is it, darling? When I told him you would be here he said he’d arrive soon after breakfast.’

‘Really, Mum! Oh well, I suppose it’s all right. He’s well trained. But I’m afraid he’s diddled you.’

‘He thinks he has, at all events,’ said Lady Alleyn. ‘And now, darling, as you are going to make an arrest in the morning, don’t you think you ought to get a good night’s sleep?’

‘Fox?’

‘Mr Fox has been fabulously discreet, Roderick.’

‘Then how did you know we were going to arrest anybody?’

‘You have just told me, my poor baby. Now run along to bed.’

At ten o’clock the next morning two police cars drove up to Tatler’s End House. They were followed by Nigel in a baby Austin. He noted, with unworthy satisfaction, that one or two young men in flannel trousers and tweed coats hung about the gate and had evidently been refused admittance by the constable on duty. Nigel himself had been given a card by Alleyn on the strict understanding that he behaved himself and brought no camera with him. He was not allowed to enter the house. He had, he considered, only a minor advantage over his brother journalists.

The three cars drew up in the drive. Alleyn, Fox, and two plainclothes men went up the steps to the front door. Nigel manoeuvred his baby Austin into a position of vantage. Alleyn glanced down at him and then turned away as Troy’s butler opened the front door.

‘Will you come in, please?’ said the butler nervously. He showed them into Troy’s library. A fire had been lit and the room would now have seemed pleasantly familiar to Alleyn if he had been there on any other errand.

‘Will you tell Miss Troy of our arrival, please?’

The butler went out.

‘I think, Fox, if you don’t mind—’ said Alleyn.

‘Certainly, sir. We’ll wait in the hall.’

Troy came in.

‘Good morning,’ said Alleyn, and his smile contradicted the formality of his words. ‘I thought you might prefer to see us before we go any further.’

‘Yes.’

‘You’ve realized from what I said last night on the telephone that as far as the police are concerned the first stage of this business may come to an end this morning?’

‘Yes. You are going to make an arrest, aren’t you?’