‘We won’t be on the place much longer, don’t you worry. Questing’ll look after that. By cripey, I sometimes wonder if it’s a fair pop, me going away when that bloke’s hanging round.’ They drove on in silence for a time and then, without warning, Simon burst into a spate of bewildered protest and fury. It was difficult to follow the progress of his ideas: Questing’s infamy, the Colonel’s unworldliness, Barbara’s virtue, the indignation of the Maori people, and the infamy of big business and vested interests were inextricably mixed together in his discourse. Presently, however, a new theme appeared. ‘Uncle James,’ said Simon, ‘reckons the curio business is all a blind. He reckons Questing’s an enemy agent.’

Dikon made a faint incredulous noise. ‘Well, he might be,’ said Simon combatively. ‘Why not? You don’t kid yourself they haven’t got agents in New Zealand, do you?’

‘Somehow he doesn’t strike me as the type.’

‘They don’t knock around wearing masks and looking tough,’ Simon pointed out with an unexpected touch of his uncle’s acerbity.

‘I know, I know. It’s only that one hears such a lot of palpable nonsense about spies that the whole idea is suspect. Like arrow poison in a detective story. Why does Dr Ackrington think—’

‘I don’t get the strength of it myself. He wouldn’t say much. Only dropped hints that we needn’t be sure Questing’d kick Dad off the place. Were you in this country when the Hippolyte was torpedoed?’

‘No. We heard about it, of course. It was a submarine, wasn’t it?’

‘That’s right. The Hippolyte put out from Harpoon at night. She went down in sight of land. Uncle James reckoned at the time that the raider got the tip from someone on shore.’

‘Questing?’ said Dikon, and tried very hard to keep the note of scepticism from his voice.

‘Yeah, Questing. Uncle James dopes it out that it’s been Questing’s idea to get this place on his own ever since he lent Dad the money. He reckons he’s been acting as an agent for years and that he’ll use the Springs as his headquarters with bogus patients and as likely as not a secret transmitting station.’

‘Oh, Lord!’