This plain statement, retailed in the fortissimo voice which Bude reserved for use on the telephone, produced a remarkable effect on the detective. He grew red in the face. “What’s that?” he cried assertively. “Gone to the Continent? I should have been told about this. Why wasn’t I informed? What part of the Continent has she gone to?” Mr. Manderton’s questions, rapped out with a rasping vigour that recalled a machine-gun firing, brought Robin to his feet in an instant. He crossed over to the desk on which the telephone stood. Manderton placed one big palm over the transmitter and turned to Robin. “She’s gone to the Continent and left no address,” he said quickly. “Ask him if Lady Margaret is there,” suggested Robin. Mr. Manderton spoke into the telephone again. Lady Margaret had gone to bed, Bude answered, and her ladyship was much put out by Miss Trevert gallivanting off like that by herself with only a scribbled note left to say that she had gone. Had Bude got the note? No, Mr. Manderton, sir, he had not. But Lady Margaret had shown it to him. It had simply stated that Miss Trevert had gone off to the Continent and would be back in a few days. Again the detective turned to Robin at his elbow. “These country bumpkins!” he said savagely. “I must go to the Yard and get Humphries on the ’phone. He may have telegraphed me about it. You stay here and I’ll ring you later if there’s any news. What do you make of it, Mr. Greve?” “It beats me,” was Robin’s rueful comment. “And what about the inquest? It’s for Tuesday, isn’t it? Miss Trevert will have to give evidence, I take it?...” “Oh,” said Mr. Manderton, picking up his hat and speaking in an offhand way, “I’m getting _that_ adjourned for a week!” “The inquest adjourned! Why?” There was a twinkle in the detective’s eye as he replied. “I thought, maybe, I might get further evidence ...” Robin caught the expression and smiled. “And when did you come to this decision, may I ask?” “After our little experiment in the garden this morning,” was the detective’s prompt reply. Robin looked at him fixedly. “But, see here,” he said, “apparently it was to the deductions you formed from the result of that experiment that I owe the attentions of your colleagues who have been hanging round the house all day. And yet you now come to me and invite my assistance. Mr. Manderton, I don’t get it at all!” “Mr. Greve,” replied the detective, “Miss Trevert tried to shield you. That made me suspicious. You tried to force my investigations into an entirely new path. That deepened my suspicions. I believed it to be my duty to ascertain your movements after leaving Harkings. But then I heard Jeekes make an apparently gratuitously false statement to Miss Trevert with an implication against you. That, to some extent, cleared you in my eyes. I say ‘to some extent’ because I will not deny that I thought I might be taking a risk in coming to you like this. You see I am frank!...”