upset all our ideas. But thanks to you and the lady, sir, we’ll confront young Hollaby and Doris Evans and see if she recognizes him. I rather fancy she will. That’s a very ingenious idea of yours about the blue coat. I’ll see that Blunt’s Brilliant Detectives get the credit for it.”
“You are a nice man, Inspector Marriot,” said Tuppence gratefully.
“We think a lot of you two at the Yard,” replied that stolid gentleman. “You’d be surprised. If I may ask you, sir, what’s the meaning of that piece of string?”
“Nothing,” said Tommy, stuffing it into his pocket. “A bad habit of mine. As to the cheese cake and the milk—I’m on a diet. Nervous dyspepsia. Busy men are always martyrs to it.”
“Ah!” said the detective. “I thought perhaps you’d been reading—well, it’s of no consequence.”
But the Inspector’s eyes twinkled.