‘I suppose so.’

‘You did very wrong not to report the matter at once.’

Jack Harrison said,

‘I suppose I did. But I wouldn’t have let an innocent person be arrested – I had quite made up my mind about that. That is why I have come to you now. My cousin said he was going to be arrested, and I couldn’t let that happen.’

‘Well, I think we shall have to have another interview with Mrs Harrison. You’re sure she doesn’t know you followed her?’

‘Yes, I’m sure. What I wanted was to avoid having a scene.’

He hesitated, and then came out with,

‘There’s just one thing more…’

‘What is it?’

‘When this man fell there was a sound as if he had dropped something. He might have had it in his hand, or perhaps it fell out of his pocket – I don’t know. The yard is paved and it made a sort of metallic sound against the stone. I had a torch in my pocket, and when my wife had gone away round the house I switched it on. I found the thing quite easily, and by hurrying after her I was able to come up as near to my wife as I wanted to.’

Frank Abbott said,

‘And what did you pick up?’

Jack Harrison dived into the pocket of his raincoat and produced an object wrapped in tissue paper. He unwrapped it, holding it gingerly, and laid it down upon the table. It was a forked rod made of metal. Frank Abbott looked at it, Inspector Sharp looked at it, Miss Silver looked at it. Jack Harrison said,

‘I don’t know what it is, but I took care how I picked it up. I really only touched the ends of the fork – if you want to try it for fingerprints.’

Frank Abbott said in his most expressionless voice,

‘The really up-to-date dowser affects a metal rod.’

NICHOLAS AND ALTHEA had been together for an hour. They had not spoken very much. He had come to say good-bye. Memory brought back to both of them that other time five years ago when they had said good-bye in the gazebo. Then it had been for five long, cold, sterile years which had taken youth, joy, everything. But he had come back. The dead years were restored again. Life flowed in and the wilderness blossomed. If he went now, not to the risks and dangers of far places but to the cold unsparing judgement of the law, perhaps this was the very last time that they would see each other except with bars between them – the very last time that they would touch, or kiss, or say a word that others did not hear. And yet on the edge of such a separation they had no words to say. And if they were to touch, how could they bear to part? To each of them there was present the thought that it would be better to make an end, to wrench away and have done with this long unconscionable dying of all that had been just within their grasp.

When presently Miss Silver came into the room there was half the width of it between them – Althea in the sofa corner, her face quite drained of colour, her hands clasped rigidly upon the black stuff of her skirt; Nicholas at the window with his back to her, staring out at the path and the road beyond the gate. Three men had come through the front door and shut it behind them. They went out by the gate and turned the corner into Hill Rise. They were Detective Inspector Sharp, Detective Inspector Abbott, and Jack Harrison. Nicholas wondered why they had not arrested him. Behind his back Miss Silver gave the slight cough with which she was wont to call an audience to attention and said,

‘Mr Harrison has made a very important statement.’

The two Inspectors and Jack Harrison walked up Hill Rise and turned into Grove Hill Road. Frank Abbott noted that it did take just five minutes to reach the front door of Grove Hill House. In the porch Jack Harrison said apprehensively,

‘You won’t want me, will you?’

The reply being in the negative, he exhibited considerable relief, remarked that they had better ring the bell, and slipped away round the house to the side door.

When the maid had gone to summon Mrs Harrison and the other two were alone in the drawing-room, Sharp said,

‘I wonder what she’ll smash this time. The poor chap’s afraid of her, you know. What do you think about that statement of his?’

‘I should say it was true.’

And with that the door opened and Ella Harrison came in. She wore the same plaid skirt as before, but the jumper and cardigan were scarlet instead of emerald, and the effect was even more startling. She had on a good deal of make-up, and she looked as if her temper might get away with her at any moment. Without even the slightest of greetings she said,

‘Well, what is it now? I suppose you think I’ve got nothing to do but answer a lot of stupid questions! And I don’t have to answer anything I don’t want to – I know enough about the law to know that!’

She had a challenging look which Inspector Sharp avoided. Frank Abbott met it coolly.

‘I think it would be better it we were to sit down. I think you can help us, and I think you would be well advised to do so. The fact is, a very detailed statement has been made with regard to your movements on Tuesday night.’

‘What do you mean about my movements? I hadn’t any movements! We came home from the Reckitts’ at seven o’clock and we didn’t go out again.’

‘Mrs Harrison, if you persist in that statement you may find yourself in a very serious position. You did go out on Tuesday night at about twenty minutes past eleven. Perhaps you do not know that you were followed, and that the person who followed you has made a detailed statement as to where you went and what you did.’

The shock was overwhelming. It was abundantly plain that Jack Harrison had spoken no more than the truth when he stated his wife had no idea that he had followed her. She took a hesitating step with her hand out before her as if she could not see. When Sharp brought up a chair she dropped on to it and sat there panting, her colour mottled and patchy under the rouge and powder. Frank Abbott said,

‘We have this statement, and I believe it to be a true one. If you will tell us just what happened from your own point of view, and the two accounts correspond, I think you will find that you have nothing to be afraid of. What you must understand is that nothing but the truth is going to clear you.’

She said in an altered voice,

‘Who followed me?’

‘Your husband. He says you were only out of his sight three times, and that for the briefest possible space, from the moment of your leaving the Grove Hill drive until your return to it. If you will give us your account of what happened during the same period, we shall be able to compare it with what your husband says. If the two accounts agree – well, you can see for yourself that their credibility will be considerably strengthened.’

He was talking partly to give her time. She had received a sudden and unexpected blow. She said in a difficult voice,

‘He followed me?’

Frank Abbott said briskly,

‘And has given a most circumstantial account of everything that took place. Now, Mrs Harrison, only a very stupid woman could fail to see that from your point of view it is absolutely necessary that your statement and your husband’s should correspond. If you and he are describing the same incidents and you are both telling the truth, they will, but the slightest deviation from what really happened, the least shade of falsehood, and you will be aggravating the dangers of your position. As you say, you needn’t speak if you do not want to, but you will be very foolish indeed if you refuse.’

He could see that she was pulling herself together. Her colour was returning to normal. She took one or two long breaths, straightened herself in her chair, and said,

‘My husband really did make a statement?’

‘Oh, yes.’

‘How do I know you’re not having me on?’

‘You can ask him yourself.’ Then, turning to his colleague, ‘Do you mind, Sharp – I expect he will be in his study.’