‘I’m more concerned with factory workers and people on low pay.’

‘Don’t tell me you’re a Luddite.’

‘I have sympathy for anyone unemployed.’

‘The march of progress must go on, even if it entails the loss of jobs. New machines can do the work of human beings so they had to give way. And what was their response?’

‘They wrecked the machines.’

‘And they were duly punished for their crime.’

‘Was that when it started, Mr Ferriday?’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘This vast network of spies that’s been set up,’ said Peter. ‘The Luddite riots were at their height five years ago. Since then, manufacturing towns have been infiltrated by government agents who report directly back to the Home Office.’

‘I shouldn’t have thought you’d object to that,’ said Ferriday. ‘You were a government agent yourself at one time and sent your reports to the same source.’

‘In my own small way, I was helping to win the war.’

‘That’s exactly what these alleged spies are doing – fighting to save this country from another kind of war. If such revolutionaries are not suppressed effectively, the whole country will suffer.’

‘Would you call Sir Roger Mellanby a revolutionary?’

‘He had the same hot blood in his veins.’

‘That comes from having passion and commitment.’

‘How would you know? You never met the man.’

‘I’ve met those who were closest to him,’ said Peter, ‘and I’ve spoken to both of his sons. Neither of them, incidentally, wishes to follow in his footsteps.’

‘That’s a relief.’

‘Edmund has political ambitions but they are of a very different hue from those of Sir Roger.’

‘Thank goodness.’

‘Who do you think might have killed him, Mr Ferriday?’

Peter’s question caught him unawares and there was a stony silence. When he spoke, Ferriday’s voice was much more measured. He rose to his feet so that it would have more force.

‘I don’t know, Mr Skillen,’ he said, ‘but I resent the fact that you and your brother have selected me as a potential suspect. What was my motive – hatred, fear, envy of the Radical Dandy’s compulsion to show off his new waistcoats in the House? I daresay you can dream up half a dozen other reasons why I would contrive his death. Your efforts, however, would be futile. The truth is that I never took Sir Roger seriously enough to consider him anything more than a confounded pest. Please tell that to your brother.’ He glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece. ‘Your fifteen minutes has expired,’ he said, icily. ‘A man with your proven expertise will surely be able to find his way to the front door.’

Having gone to the coroner’s office to discuss the terms of the inquest, Edmund Mellanby and Barrington Oxley came out to a windswept morning. There was a fundamental disagreement between them.

‘I don’t want him involved in the inquest,’ said Mellanby.