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exactly happened while I was waiting outside the billiard-room door."

"Nothing happened while you were waiting outside the billiard-room door; it had all happened already. Quite early on, while we were worrying about up here, Davenant saw that the place was unhealthy for him. He wandered out into the billiard-room, arranging the balls, I think, as a kind of message for us, and then strolled off somewhere⁠—into the servants' quarters, I suppose. It's obvious that he must have had a confederate in the house. Then the police came⁠—I imagine they must have watched somebody bringing him things from outside."

"Sullivan," said Gordon. "That was what he was doing, obviously, the day I was over in Davenant's cottage, he was taking him collars and things."

"Anyhow, the police came and climbed in at the cellar, making a great song and dance about it as the police always do. Davenant saw that things were getting pretty serious, so he made for the nearest motorbike he could find⁠—I don't know whether he knew it belonged to the police or not. Having once started to run away, of course he couldn't very well stop at Weighford and tell us it was all a silly mistake: having started to bolt, he had to go on bolting. And he did it damned cleverly: if he'd had time to shut the door of the carriage in the express, or had a season ticket to justify his presence in the Binver train, how could