"I'll put it again, and you needn't be afraid that anybody'll overhear us in this place, it's safe! I say once more, what for did you not tell in your evidence at that inquest that you saw Sir Gilbert Carstairs at the cross-roads on the night of the murder! Um ?" "That's my business!" said I "Just so," said he.

"And I'll agree with you in that.

It is your business.

But if by that you mean that it's yours alone, and nobody else's, then I don't agree.

Neither would the police." We stared at each other across the table for a minute of silence, and then I put the question directly to him that I had been wanting to put ever since he had first spoken.