“I went for a walk,” said Thalia Drummond coolly. “If you will give me a map of London, I will endeavour to retrace my footsteps.” “Suppose some of them have already been traced?” Her eyes narrowed. “In that case,” she said quietly, “I am saved the bother of telling you where I went.” “Now look here, Miss Drummond,” he leant across the table. “I am perfectly sure that you are not, in your heart of hearts, a murderess. That word makes you wince, and it is an ugly one. But there are suspicious circumstances which I have not yet revealed to Parr about your movements last night.” “Being under suspicion is a normal condition with me,” she said, “and since you know so much, it is quite unnecessary for me to tell you more.” He looked at her, but she returned his gaze without faltering, and then with a shrug of his shoulders, he said: “Really, I don’t think it matters where you were.” “I’m almost inclined to agree with you,” she mocked him, and went back to her office and her typewriter. “An amazing personality,” thought Derrick Yale. Women did not ordinarily interest him, but Thalia Drummond was beyond and outside of the general run. Her beauty had no appeal for him; he knew she was pretty, just as he knew his office door was painted brown and that the colour of a penny stamp was red. He took up the paper again and re-read some of the comments upon the inefficiency of police head-quarters, and soon after, as he had expected, Parr came into the room with a certain briskness and dropped into a chair. “The Commissioner has asked for my resignation,” he said, and to the other’s surprise, his voice was almost cheerful. “I’m not worrying. I intended to retire three years ago when my brother left me his money.” This was the first intimation Derrick Yale had received that Inspector Parr was a comparatively rich man. “What are you going to do?” he asked, and Parr smiled. “In Government offices when you are asked to resign, you resign,” he said drily. “But my resignation will not take effect until the end of next month. I must wait and see what happens to you, my friend.” “To me?” said Derrick in surprise. “Oh, you mean the warning that I am to be polished off on the fourth? Let me see, there are only two or three days of life left for me,” he laughed ironically as he glanced at the calendar. “I don’t think you need wait for that. But, joking apart, why resign at all? Do you think if I saw the Commissioner----” “He’d take much less notice of you than he would of a row of beans if they started articulating,” said Mr. Parr. “As a matter of fact, he isn’t taking me off the case until my resignation comes into effect, and I have you to thank for that.” “Me?” The stout inspector was laughing silently. “I told him that your life was so precious to the country that it was necessary I should remain on duty until I had got you over the fatal date,” he said. Thalia Drummond came in at that moment with another batch of correspondence.