They rang off. He could have shouted with joy. His problem was solved. He rushed to the bathroom and washed, lavishly. He changed his shirt and brushed his hair. Seized with a desire to acquire a little merit in Alleyn's eyes, he rang up Surbonadier's flat. He could hear the telephone ringing there and waited for some time, but nobody answered it. Alleyn had gone, after all. He would ring up again later. He seized his hat and ran downstairs. He hailed a taxi, gave Gardener's address, and flung himself back. Only then did it occur to him that it was very clever of Chief Detective-Inspector Alleyn to have guessed that Gardener would be able to tell them something more about the peculiar behaviour of Arthur Surbonadier, during the days when he was an undergraduate. Gradually he was conscious of an idea that edged in at the back of his mind, an idea that was still only half sensed. He examined it now more closely, letting it come up to the front of his consciousness. For a moment he shied round it nervously, but it was insistent, and presently he fell to reasoning it out with logical persistence. Then a great light dawned on Nigel.

"That's it," he whispered. "That's it. Gosh, what a blind fool I've been." And then with complete understanding he thought: "Poor old Felix!"

Meanwhile in Surbonadier's flat it had grown very dark.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Gardener Looks Backwards

"IF YOU DON'T MIND, Nigel," said Gardener, "I'm going to get this off my chest, right away. It'll clear the air. There's a drink. Sit down." He looked less jumpy and nightmare ridden, thought Nigel, and had the air of a man who has come to a decision and is glad of it.

"It's this," he began. "When you came this morning, I was properly under the weather. Hadn't slept a wink and the—the awfulness of having killed Arthur Surbonadier had given place to the terror of being suspected by your friend, Alleyn. You simply can't imagine what that sort of fear is like. Perhaps, if a man's guilty, he is less panic-stricken than I was. It seemed to me I couldn't prove I was not guilty, and that, in spite of everything you said, I was the man they really suspected."

"You were quite wrong."