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‘I’m not going back to the house. I’m going to stay here—in the open.’

‘Oh come now, Miss Claythorne. Got to keep your strength up, you know.’

Vera said:

‘If I even see a tinned tongue, I shall be sick! I don’t want any food. People go days on end with nothing sometimes when they’re on a diet.’

Blore said:

‘Well, I need my meals regular. What about you, Mr Lombard?’

Philip said:

‘You know, I don’t relish the idea of tinned tongue particularly. I’ll stay here with Miss Claythorne.’

Blore hesitated. Vera said:

‘I shall be quite all right. I don’t think he’ll shoot me as soon as your back is turned if that’s what you’re afraid of.’

Blore said:

‘It’s all right if you say so. But we agreed we ought not to separate.’

Philip said:

‘You’re the one who wants to go into the lion’s den. I’ll come with you if you like.’

‘No, you won’t,’ said Blore. ‘You’ll stay here.’

Philip laughed.

‘So you’re still afraid of me? Why, I could shoot you both this very minute if I liked.’

Blore said:

‘Yes, but that wouldn’t be according to plan. It’s one at a time, and it’s got to be done in a certain way.’

‘Well,’ said Philip, ‘you seem to know all about it.’

‘Of course,’ said Blore, ‘it’s a bit jumpy going up to the house alone—’

Philip said softly:

‘And therefore, will I lend you my revolver? Answer, no,

I will not! Not quite so simple as that, thank you.’

Blore shrugged his shoulders and began to make his way up the steep slope to the house.

Lombard said softly:

‘Feeding time at the Zoo! The animals are very regular in their habits!’

Vera said anxiously:

‘Isn’t it very risky, what he’s doing?’

‘In the sense you mean—no, I don’t think it is! Armstrong’s not armed, you know, and anyway Blore is twice a match for him in physique and he’s very much on his guard. And anyway it’s a sheer impossibility that Armstrong can be in the house. I know he’s not there.’

‘But—what other solution is there?’

Philip said softly:

‘There’s Blore.’

‘Oh—do you really think—?’

‘Listen, my girl. You heard Blore’s story. You’ve got to admit that if it’s true, I can’t possibly have had anything to do with Armstrong’s disappearance. His story clears me. But it doesn’t clear him. We’ve only his word for it that he heard footsteps and saw a man going downstairs and out at the front door. The whole thing may be a lie. He may have got rid of Armstrong a couple of hours before that.’

‘How?’

Lombard shrugged his shoulders.

‘That we don’t know. But if you ask me, we’ve only one danger to fear—and that danger is Blore! What do we know about the man? Less than nothing! All this ex-policeman story may be bunkum! He may be anybody—a mad millionaire—a crazy businessman—an escaped inmate of Broadmoor. One thing’s certain. He could have done every one of these crimes.’

Vera had gone rather white. She said in a slightly breathless voice:

‘And supposing he gets—us?’

Lombard said softly, patting the revolver in his pocket: ‘I’m going to take very good care he doesn’t.’

Then he looked at her curiously.

‘Touching faith in me, haven’t you, Vera? Quite sure I wouldn’t shoot you?’