“Now you’re here, sir,” continued Poole, “perhaps I may ask you one or two questions. I’ve already explained to Mr. Blagge and Miss Sav—Mrs. Wraile, that I am here in connection with the death of Sir Garth Fratten. It has been suggested that the possibility of Sir Garth joining the Board was not welcomed by some of the directors; can you tell me about that?” Poole noticed that Mrs. Wraile evidently intended to remain in the room while he interrogated her husband; in the ordinary course he did not like to question anyone in the presence of a third person, but in this case he realized that whatever passed would be discussed by Wraile and his wife whether she was there or not; he thought it might even be useful to have her there as he might intercept some glance between the two that might be a guide to him. It was even yet possible that their connection with the case might be an innocent one; their joint attitude now might give him an indication as to whether it was or not. Wraile had received the detective’s question, first with surprise and then with a frown of thought. “I expect I know what you mean, Inspector,” he said at last, “but though there was some disagreement about it I don’t think it amounted to anything at all significant. I saw the account of the Inquest; I gather that you think Sir Garth may have been murdered and that you’re looking about for a motive. There may have been some lack of enthusiasm about his joining the Board but it was a molehill that you mustn’t make a mountain out of.” Wraile’s smile was disarming. “I don’t know whether you know our chairman—Sir Hunter Lorne? A damn good fellow and a fine soldier, but not brimming over with tact. He threw this business at us like a bomb—without a word of warning—said he’d invited Sir Garth to join the Board and that he’d as good as accepted. Of course he’d got no right to invite him without our consent—or at any rate without consulting us—he’s got a majority of shares so of course he can outvote us. But his inviting Fratten without consulting us put us in a very awkward position and he made out he’d done something wonderful and was only waiting for the applause. Lessingham was furious and I confess I was a good deal irritated myself. When I’d had time to think it over I came to the conclusion that Fratten’s joining the Board would, on balance, be a good thing; I told Sir Hunter so. I don’t know whether Lessingham came to that conclusion or not—I’ve only seen him once since and we didn’t refer to it then—it was after Fratten’s death. You’d better ask him yourself if you want to know.”