‘He wanted me to go to Edinburgh to take my medical.’

‘And you didn’t want to go?’

‘No.’

‘Why?’

‘I thought it would be so damned dull. I wanted to go to Thomas’s. He had agreed to that.’

Alleyn returned to his seat at the desk. ‘What made him change his mind?’ he asked.

‘This business about my debts.’

‘Nothing else?’

Donald ground out his cigarette with a trembling hand and shook his head.

‘Did he object to any of your friends, for instance?’ Alleyn asked.

‘I—well, he may have thought—I mean, it wasn’t that.’

‘Did he know you were acquainted with Captain Maurice Withers?’

Donald darted a glance of profound astonishment at Alleyn, opened his mouth, shut it again, and finally said:

‘I think so.’

‘Aren’t you certain?’

‘He knew I was friendly with Withers. Yes.’

‘Did he object to this friendship?’

‘He did say something, now I come to think about it.’

‘It didn’t leave any particular impression on you?’

‘Oh, no,’ said Donald.

Alleyn brought his hand down sharply on Lord Robert’s cheque book.

‘Then, I take it,’ he said, ‘you have forgotten a certain cheque for fifty pounds.’

Donald stared at the long thin hand lying across the blue cover. A dull flush mounted to the roots of his hair.

‘No,’ he said, ‘I remember.’

‘Did he pay this amount to Withers on your behalf?’

‘Yes.’

‘And yet it left no particular impression on you?’

‘There were,’ said Donald, ‘so many debts.’

‘Your uncle knew you were friendly with this man. He had certain information about him. I know that. I ask you whether, in fact, he did not object most strongly to your connection with Withers?’

‘If you like to put it that way.’

‘For God’s sake,’ said Alleyn, ‘don’t hedge with me. I want to give you every chance.’

‘You—don’t—think—I—’

‘You’re his heir. You quarrelled with him. You’ve been in debt. You are sharing rooms with a man against whom he warned you. You’re in no position to try and save your face over smaller matters. You want to spare your mother as much as possible, don’t you? Of course you do, and so do I. I ask you most earnestly as a friend, which I should not do, to tell me the whole truth.’

‘Very well,’ said Donald.

‘You’re living in the same flat as Captain Withers. What have you been doing there?’

‘I—we—I was waiting to see if I couldn’t perhaps go to Thomas’s, after all.’

‘How could you afford to do that?’

‘My mother would have helped me. I’ve got my prelim, and I thought if I read a bit and tried to earn a bit, later on I could start.’

‘How did you propose to earn a bit?’

‘Wits was helping me—Captain Withers, I mean. He’s been perfectly splendid. I don’t care what anybody says about him, he’s not a crook.’

‘What suggestions did he make?’

Donald fidgeted.

‘Oh, nothing definite. We were going to talk it over.’