He nodded. “My job isn’t exactly taxing. I know who comes in and out of this place.”

“Well, thank you,” I said. “I’d better start walking back. I haven’t had breakfast yet.”

“Watch out for the beasts,” Jimmy called after me. “Some of them can be right mean.”

I nodded and the moment the gate was out of sight I found a stout stick lying by the side of the road and carried it for protection. And as I walked I tried to work out what Jimmy’s revelation might mean. I remembered Ronnie saying that he was going to drive Mr. Goldman and Stella. Had I actually seen her get into the car? I thought I had but there was all the usual confusion about setting off on a trip as we tried to stow Mummy’s luggage and Mummy’s maid into the motorcar. I supposed it was possible that Stella had forgotten something at the last moment and told Cy Goldman to go on without her and she’d drive her own car up later. But it was all rather coincidental that the person now being locked in her room on suspicion of robbery, if not of murder, had chosen to arrive after everyone else. Was there possibly something in her car that she hadn’t wanted anyone to see? I frowned as I strode out up the track, trying to make sense of this latest piece of news.

I’d gone about half a mile when a huge bird burst from cover on my right and ran across the road ahead of me. It took me a moment to realize it was an ostrich, and another long moment for my heart to stop beating rapidly. But I was glad to note that it appeared to be more frightened of me than I was of it. As I watched it disappear into a thick stand of bushes and trees on my left, I thought I saw something glinting among the leaves. Metal? I left the road and sure enough, I spotted what seemed to be tire tracks in a soft patch of earth. I went on and found a small open-topped sports car, hidden among the bushes.