“Peter Hay, I suspect, they fastened on as being the most dangerous witness. Probably Aird made an appointment for the claimant, and they called at the poor old chap's cottage at night. He evidently refused to have anything to do with them; and he was too dangerous to leave alive; so they killed him. Then they went after the diary—probably Aird knew about that, or else Peter may have let the information out somehow—and they took Hay's keys to get into Foxhills. The silver plant was an obvious muddle. They hadn't Cargill at the back of them at the time, and they made that mistake on the spur of the moment. “By that time they'd got in touch with Miss Fordingbridge. Aird would know all about her spiritualistic leanings, and they played on that string. But soon they learned they were up against Paul Fordingbridge; and they began to see that it would be easiest to put him out of their road. “Meanwhile Staveley took it into his head to work on his own by trying to blackmail the Fleetwoods. And you know what came of that. The rest of the gang thought they could kill two birds with one stone—at least, the gang minus Billingford, for really I don't think Billingford was much more than a tool. “Now, inspector, how far does that square with all the confidences you extracted last night from that precious pair of scoundrels? Do I get a box of chocolates or only a clay pipe in this competition?” The inspector made no attempt to suppress the admiration in his tone. “It's wonderfully accurate, sir. You're right on every point of importance—even down to what happened in the war.” “That's a relief,” the chief constable admitted with a laugh. “I was rather afraid that I'd . . . Summed it so well that it came to far more Than the witnesses ever had said! And now I think I'll go back to the hotel and try to make my peace with the Fleetwoods. I like them, and I'd hate to leave a false impression of my character on their minds. Care to come along, squire?” The End Transcriber’s Note This transcription follows the text of the Grosset & Dunlap edition published in 1928. The following alterations have been made to correct what are believed to be unambiguous printer's errors. * “Laurent-Desrousseux” has been changed to “Laurent-Desrousseaux” (Ch. XI). * “tha” has been changed to “that” (Ch. XI). * “Stavely” has been changed to “Staveley” (Ch. XVII). * “coudn't” has been changed to “couldn't” (Ch. XVII).