‘I am glad to meet you,’ said Richard. ‘Of course, I know you well by reputation. How thoroughly you go into an affair! Fancy you acting as odd man here for weeks! I tell you you have completely imposed on them.’ ‘Have I?’ exclaimed Micky--or Nolan, as he must now be called. ‘I should be glad to be assured of that. Twice to-day I have feared that Raphael Craig had his doubts of me.’ ‘I don’t think so for a moment,’ said Richard positively. ‘But what is your object--what is Scotland Yard after? Personally, I came here without any theories, on the chance of something turning up.’ ‘Scotland Yard is merely curious about the suicide--if it was a suicide--of a man named Featherstone, and about the plague of silver which has visited this district during the last year or two.’ ‘You say “if it was a suicide.” Do you suspect that Featherstone’s death was due to anything else?’ ‘I never suspect until I know, Mr. Redgrave. I am here with an open mind.’ ‘And what have you discovered so far?’ asked Richard. ‘My very dear sir,’ Nolan expostulated, ‘what do you take me for? I am sure that you are a man of unimpeachable honour--all private agents are--but, nevertheless, I cannot proclaim my discoveries to a stranger. It would be a breach of etiquette to do so, even if such a course were not indiscreet.’ ‘I give you my word, Mr. Nolan, that my activity in this case is now entirely at an end. I have found out this evening all that I wished to know, and perhaps more than I wished to know. I shall return to town on Monday morning, and Bedfordshire will know me no more.’ He paused, and added: ‘At least, it will know me no more as a private inquiry agent.’ ‘Or motor-car expert,’ said Nolan. Richard laughed. ‘I was merely asking you,’ Richard resumed, ‘how far you had got, in the hope that possibly I might be able to simplify matters for you.’ ‘You are very good,’ said Nolan, with an indescribable accent of irony--a bantering tone which, however, was so good-humoured that Richard could not take exception to it--‘you are very good.’ ‘You have found out, I presume, something concerning the chalk-pit?’ ‘Oh yes,’ said Nolan, ‘I have found out something concerning the chalk-pit.’ ‘And you know what the crash Was early this morning?’ ‘I have a notion,’ said Nolan. ‘And, since I saw your inquisitive face at the window of that stable to-night, you know what that stable contains?’ ‘Not quite to half-a-crown,’ said Nolan, but approximately.’ ‘By the way,’ Richard asked, ‘why on earth didn’t you come and assist in putting out the fire?’ ‘What! And give myself away?’ ‘It might have been a matter of life and death.’ ‘Yes, it might have been. Had it got so far, I dare say I should have sacrificed my standing here, my reputation with these people as a simple Irishman, in order to save them. But I knew that you were there, and that you would do all that was necessary.’ ‘I only just got into the place in time,’ said Richard sharply.