“A good deal, apparently. To begin with, he appears to be a friend of Stapleton’s, for a friend of mine in London has, at my request, been watching Stapleton’s house near Uckfield, called The Nest. Stothert goes there frequently, it seems; my friend believes he calls there for letters. And the other day some fellow arrived there, knocked and rang, and then, getting no answer, went and hid in the undergrowth in the wood close by, and remained watching the house. While he was watching, Stothert arrived and was met by a girl who, my friend says, is employed by Stothert secretly, and the two went into the house. When the fellow who had lain concealed in the wood--and been himself watched by my friend--went back to Uckfield, my friend followed him on a bicycle, and finally shadowed him back to London and to an hotel--Cox’s in Jermyn Street. But, though afterwards he made inquiries at the hotel, he was unable to find out who the fellow was.” “George Blenkiron, when in town, generally stays at Cox’s,” Preston said reflectively. “Does he? Then he may know who the man is, and his name. I’ll write to him to-morrow. It is such a small hotel.” Hopford had also a good deal to say about Mrs. Timothy Macmahon and her intimacy with the late Lord Froissart; about Marietta Stringborg and her husband; about Fobart Robertson, whose whereabouts, he said, he was likely soon to discover; and about Alphonse Michaud, proprietor of the Metropolitan Secret Agency at the house with the bronze face. One important fact he had already established--Michaud was intimately acquainted with Jessica and Stapleton. Yet at the Royal Hotel in Dieppe, Preston had told him, Jessica, Stapleton and La Planta had openly stated that they knew Michaud only by name. “Which confirms the suspicion I have for some time entertained,” Hopford went on, “that Jessica and her friends are in some way associated with the house with the bronze face.” “There I can’t agree with you,” Preston said. “In view of all that has happened, such a thing seems to me incredible. Why, we used to consult the Secret Agency concerning Jessica and her past history, don’t you remember? And they found out for us several things about her.” “Several things, yes, but not one of the things they ‘found out’ was of importance. It is the Agency’s business, to my belief, to hunt with the hounds and run with the hare, and they do it successfully. Surely you recollect Mrs. Hartsilver’s telling us how she and Miss Hagerston had been shown by Stothert what he declared to be the actual pearl necklace belonging to Marietta Stringborg, and saying the necklace stolen from her at the Albert Hall ball and afterwards found in Miss Hagerston’s possession, was made of imitation pearls? Well, I can prove that on that occasion, as well as at other times, Stothert intentionally lied.” “Then what is your theory?”