‘After all, sir, one of those smart lads may have got out of the College buildings unbeknownst. Probably a few cat burglars amongst them, and if so — ’

‘That’s what we’re meant to think. Very convenient. But if that’s so, Lake, I’ll eat my new soft hat.’

II

‘I was at the piano,’ said Stephen Restarick. ‘I’d been strumming softly when the row blew up. Between Lewis and Edgar.’

‘What did you think of it?’

‘Well — to tell the truth I didn’t really take it seriously. The poor beggar has these fits of venom. He’s not really loopy, you know. All this nonsense is a kind of blowing off steam. The truth is, we all get under his skin — particularly Gina, of course.’

‘Gina? You mean Mrs Hudd? Why does she get under his skin?’

‘Because she’s a woman — and a very beautiful woman, and because she thinks he’s funny! She’s half Italian, you know, and the Italians have that unconscious vein of cruelty. They’ve no compassion for anyone who’s old or ugly, or peculiar in any way. They point with their fingers and jeer. That’s what Gina did, metaphorically speaking. She’d no use for young Edgar. He was ridiculous, pompous, and at bottom fundamentally unsure of himself. He wanted to impress, and he only succeeded in looking silly. It wouldn’t mean anything to her that the poor fellow suffered a lot.’

‘Are you suggesting that Edgar Lawson is in love with Mrs Hudd?’ asked Inspector Curry.

Stephen replied cheerfully:

‘Oh yes. As a matter of fact we all are, more or less! She likes us that way.’

‘Does her husband like it?’

‘He takes a dim view. He suffers, too, poor fellow. The thing can’t last, you know. Their marriage, I mean. It will break up before long. It was just one of these war affairs.’

‘This is all very interesting,’ said the Inspector. ‘But we’re getting away from our subject, which is the murder of Christian Gulbrandsen.’

‘Quite,’ said Stephen. ‘But I can’t tell you anything about it. I sat at the piano, and I didn’t leave the piano until dear Jolly came in with some rusty old keys and tried to fit one to the lock of the study door.’

‘You stayed at the piano. Did you continue to play the piano?’

‘A gentle obbligato to the life and death struggle in Lewis’s study? No, I stopped playing when the tempo rose. Not that I had any doubts as to the outcome. Lewis has what I can only describe as a dynamic eye. He could easily break up Edgar just by looking at him.’

‘Yet Edgar Lawson fired two shots at him.’

Stephen shook his head gently.

‘Just putting on an act, that was. Enjoying himself. My dear mother used to do it. She died or ran away with someone when I was four, but I remember her blazing off with a pistol if anything upset her. She did it at a night club once. Made a pattern on the wall. She was an excellent shot. Quite a bit of trouble she caused. She was a Russian dancer, you know.’