‘Aw, hell!’ said Smith plaintively. ‘What do you know about that!’ He laughed bitterly. ‘If he’s hooked it,’ he said, ‘that’s the finish. I’m not interested.’ The corners of his mouth drooped dolorously. He looked like an alcoholic and disappointed clown. ‘I’m disgusted,’ he said.

‘Perhaps we should let Dr Ackrington expound,’ Falls suggested.

‘Thank you. I have become accustomed to a continuous stream of interruptions whenever I open my mouth in this household. However.’

‘Do explain, dear,’ said his sister. ‘Nobody’s going to interrupt you, old boy.’

‘For some time,’ Dr Ackrington began, pitching his voice on a determined note, ‘I have suspected Questing of certain activities; in a word, I believe him to be an enemy agent. Some of you have been aware of my views. My nephew, apparently, has shared them. He had not seen fit to consult me and has conducted independent investigations of the nature of which I was informed, for the first time, last night.’ He paused. Simon kicked his legs about and said nothing. ‘It appears,’ Dr Ackrington continued, ‘that my nephew has had other confidants. It would be strange under these circumstances if Questing, undoubtedly an astute blackguard, failed to discover that he was in some danger. How many of you, for instance, knew of his real activities on the Peak?’

‘I know what he was up to,’ said Smith instantly. ‘I told Rua, weeks ago. I warned him.’

‘Of what did you warn him, pray?’

‘I told him Questing was after his grandfather’s club. You know, Rewi’s adze. I was sorry later on that I’d spoken. I got Questing wrong. It was different afterwards. He was going to treat me all right.’ Again, his hand moved to the inside pocket of his coat.

‘I too had spoken to Rua. I had received no satisfaction from the police or from the military authorities, and, wrongly perhaps, I conceived it my duty to warn Rua of the true significance of Questing’s visits to the Peak. Don’t interrupt me,’ Dr Ackrington commanded, as Smith began a querulous outcry. ‘I told Rua the curio story was a blind. I gather that unknown to myself, at least three other persons’—he looked from Simon to Dikon and Gaunt—‘were aware of my suspicions. Simon had actually visited the police. As for you, Edward, I tried repeatedly to convince you…’

‘Yes, but you’re always goin’ on about somethin’ or other, James.’

‘My God!’ said Dr Ackrington quietly.

‘Please, dear!’ begged Mrs Claire.

‘Is it too much,’ asked Gaunt on a high note, ‘to ask that this conversation should grow to a point?’

‘May I interrupt?’ murmured Falls. ‘Dr Ackrington suggests that Questing, feeling that the place was getting too hot for him, has staged his own disappearance in order to make good his escape. We have got so far, haven’t we?’