“Indeed?” I said politely.

“Very mysterious business this about poor Ackroyd,” continued the colonel, accepting a cup of coffee. “A deuce of a lot behind it⁠—that’s what I say. Between you and me, Sheppard, I’ve heard the word blackmail mentioned!”

The colonel gave me the look which might be tabulated “one man of the world to another.”

“A woman in it, no doubt,” he said. “Depend upon it, a woman in it.”

Caroline and Miss Gannett joined us at this minute. Miss Gannett drank coffee whilst Caroline got out the Mah Jong box and poured out the tiles upon the table.

“Washing the tiles,” said the colonel facetiously. “That’s right⁠—washing the tiles, as we used to say in the Shanghai Club.”