‘By all means. I shall begin by stating flatly that if I could have got at Questing last night I should have certainly have given him fits. I left the hall with every intention of giving him fits. I couldn’t find him. I heard voices in the distance; in the light of Gaunt’s amended statement, I presume they were his and Questing’s voices but I did not recognize them. I had it in my head that Questing would be halfway across the thermal reserve and I hurried along with the idea of catching him up. I did not find him. I carried on and came home.’

‘May one know why you wanted to tackle him?’ asked Falls.

‘Certainly. His behaviour at the concert. It was the final straw. Any questions?’ asked Dr Ackrington loudly.

‘Too right. Doc, there’s a question,’ said Smith with an air of the deepest acumen. ‘Can you prove it?’

‘No.’

‘Oh.’

‘Any other questions?’

‘I should like to know,’ said Falls, ‘if you noticed the gap in the path.’

‘I am glad, Falls, that you at least have had the intelligence to ask the only question that can possibly have any useful bearing on our problem. I did not. I must confess I don’t actually remember seeing the flag, which I admit is curious. But I’m perfectly certain there was no gap in the path.’

‘Might you have missed it, Uncle?’ asked Barbara suddenly and Dikon noticed how the men all looked at her as if a domestic pet had given utterance.

‘Conceivably,’ said Dr Ackrington. ‘I don’t think so. However. Now you, Edward.’

‘It’s unfortunate,’ said Gaunt airily, ‘that nobody saw the doctor whizzing past the geysers.’

‘I am aware of that. I realize my position. The purple policeman has doubtless put some fantastic interpretation upon the circumstance. I agree that I am unfortunate in that I was unobserved.’

‘But you were observed, James,’ said the Colonel, opening his eyes very widely. ‘I observed you, you know.’

IV

The Colonel seemed to be mildly gratified by his brother-in-law’s reception of this news. He smiled gently and nodded his head at Ackrington, who gaped at him, opened and shut his mouth once or twice, and finally swore softly under his breath.

‘I was behind you, you know,’ Colonel Claire added. ‘Walkin’.’

‘I didn’t suppose, Edward, that you cycled through the thermal region. May I ask why you have not mentioned this before?’

Colonel Claire returned the classic answer: ‘Nobody asked me,’ he said.

‘Were you hard on his heels the whole way, Colonel?’

‘Eh? No, Falls. No, you see he went so fast. I caught sight of him when I got to that gap in the hedge round the village and then the bumps in the ground hid him. Then I saw him again when I got to the top of the mound. He was nearly over at the hill by then.’