‘I told you that racquet business was peculiar,’ said Julia triumphantly, ‘and you had a burglary, too, at your home, didn’t you?’

‘Yes, but they didn’t take anything.’

‘That makes it even more interesting,’ said Julia. ‘I think,’ she added thoughtfully, ‘that we shall probably have a second murder soon.’

‘Oh really, Julia, why should we have a second murder?’

‘Well, there’s usually a second murder in books,’ said Julia. ‘What I think is, Jennifer, that you’ll have to be frightfully careful that it isn’t you who gets murdered.’

‘Me?’ said Jennifer, surprised. ‘Why should anyone murder me?’

‘Because somehow you’re mixed up in it all,’ said Julia. She added thoughtfully, ‘We must try and get a bit more out of your mother next week, Jennifer. Perhaps somebody gave her some secret papers out in Ramat.’

‘What sort of secret papers?’

‘Oh, how should I know,’ said Julia. ‘Plans or formulas for a new atomic bomb. That sort of thing.’

Jennifer looked unconvinced.

III

Miss Vansittart and Miss Chadwick were in the Common Room when Miss Rowan entered and said:

‘Where is Shaista? I can’t find her anywhere. The Emir’s car has just arrived to call for her.’

‘What?’ Chaddy looked up surprised. ‘There must be some mistake. The Emir’s car came for her about three quarters of an hour ago. I saw her get into it and drive off myself. She was one of the first to go.’

Eleanor Vansittart shrugged her shoulders. ‘I suppose a car must have been ordered twice over, or something,’ she said.

She went out herself and spoke to the chauffeur. ‘There must be some mistake,’ she said. ‘The young lady has already left for London three quarters of an hour ago.’

The chauffeur seemed surprised. ‘I suppose there must be some mistake, if you say so, madam,’ he said. ‘I was definitely given instructions to call at Meadowbank for the young lady.’

‘I suppose there’s bound to be a muddle sometimes,’ said Miss Vansittart.

The chauffeur seemed unperturbed and unsurprised. ‘Happens all the time,’ he said. ‘Telephone messages taken, written down, forgotten. All that sort of thing. But we pride ourselves in our firm that we don’t make mistakes. Of course, if I may say so, you never know with these Oriental gentlemen. They’ve sometimes got quite a big entourage with them, and orders get given twice and even three times over. I expect that’s what must have happened in this instance.’ He turned his large car with some adroitness and drove away.

Miss Vansittart looked a little doubtful for a moment or two, but she decided there was nothing to worry about and began to look forward with satisfaction to a peaceful afternoon.

After luncheon the few girls who remained wrote letters or wandered about the grounds. A certain amount of tennis was played and the swimming pool was well patronized. Miss Vansittart took her fountain pen and her writing pad to the shade of the cedar tree. When the telephone rang at half past four it was Miss Chadwick who answered it.