Loraine shook her head.

“A man like Sir Oswald Coote! It’s impossible. What could he have to gain by it?”

“It seems absurd,” said Jimmy. “And yet⁠—”

“ No. 7 has his own ways of working,” quoted Bundle softly. “Supposing this is the way Sir Oswald has really made his fortune?”

“But why stage all that comedy at the Abbey when he’d had the formula at his own works?”

“There might be ways of explaining that,” said Loraine. “The same line of argument you used about Mr. O’Rourke. Suspicion had to be diverted from him and placed in another quarter.”

Bundle nodded eagerly.