Dikon folded the letter and gave it to Webley.

‘ “I do not think he trusts me” ’ quoted Mr Falls. ‘How right he was!’

‘Yes,’ Dikon agreed and added, ‘He was right about another thing too. He was an appalling scamp, but I always rather liked him.’

Huia rang the luncheon bell.

Chapter 14
Solo by Septimus Falls

Before they left the room Webley showed Dikon how Questing had already packed most of his clothes. Webley had forced open a heavy leather suitcase and found it full of pieces of greenstone, implements, and weapons; the fruits, he supposed, of many nights’ digging on the Peak. Rewi’s adze, Webley said, had been locked apart in another case. Dikon guessed that Questing had planned to show it to Gaunt when they returned from the concert and had kept it apart for that purpose.

‘Do you suppose he meant to try and sell the other stuff in Australia?’ he asked.

‘That might be the case, Mr Bell, but he would never have got it past the Customs examination. The export of such things is strictly prohibited.’

‘Or perhaps,’ Mr Falls suggested, ‘he was merely a passionate collector. There are men, you know, who, without any real appreciation for such things, become obsessed with a most imperative desire to acquire them. Scrupulous in other things they are entirely unscrupulous in that.’

‘He was a pretty keen man of business,’ Dikon said.

‘I’ll say he was,’ said Webley. ‘We’ve found blueprints for a new Wai-ata-tapu hotel and grounds that’d make Rotorua look like Shanty-town. Wonderful place he’d planned to make of it.’

He put Questing’s letter in a large envelope, made a note of its contents across the back, and asked Dikon and Falls to sign it. They went out and he locked the door after them.

‘Well,’ said Dikon as they walked along the verandah, ‘I never quite believed he was a spy.’

‘It seems to leave the field wide open again, doesn’t it?’ Mr Falls murmured.

‘For an enemy agent who is also a murderer?’

‘It is a strong presumption. Have you any objection, Webley, to our making this new development known to the rest of our party?’

Webley was close behind them. Mr Falls stopped and turned to await his answer. It was a long time coming.

‘Well, no,’ said Webley at last. ‘There’s no objection to that. I can’t exactly stop you, can I, Mr Falls?’

‘I mean, with an enemy in our midst, isn’t it a wise policy to put everyone on the alert as it were? Will you go in, Bell?’

‘After you,’ said Dikon.

‘Mr Falls and I,’ said Webley, ‘are going to wash our hands. Don’t wait for us, Mr Bell.’

Upon this sufficiently broad hint, Dikon went in to lunch.