‘By the way, do you smoke?’

‘Yes, but I won’t just now, thank you.’

’You had better.  You can throw it away when I have done.  These are in rather a good condition.’

Mr. Le Mesurier seemed inclined to branch off upon the quality of different brands, but Drake gave him no assistance.  He lit his cigar and patiently waited, his eyes fixed upon his host.  Mr. Le Mesurier felt driven back upon the actual point of his explanation, and almost compelled to fine his words down to just the needful quantity.

‘Clarice, I believe,’ he said brusquely, ’means to ask you how Gorley died.  He was engaged to her.’

Drake did not so much as stir a muscle, even his eyes maintained their steadiness, and Mr. Le Mesurier drew a breath of relief.  ’I am glad you take it like this,’ he went on.  ’I was afraid that what I had to say might have been, well, perhaps a blow to you, and if so the fault would have been mine; for I encouraged you to come here.’

Drake bent forward and knocked the ash off the end of his cigar.

‘Yes,’ he asked; ‘why did you do that?’

Mr. Le Mesurier looked uncomfortable.

‘It is only right that I should be frank with you,’ he replied.  ’The mere fact of Gorley’s death, apart from its manner, upset Clarice, more, I confess, than we expected, and made her quite ill for a time.  She is not very strong, you know.  So it was deemed best, not only by me, but by Gorley’s family as well, that she should be kept in ignorance of what had actually happened.  We simply told her that Gorley had died near Boruwimi.  But I fancy that she suspected we were concealing something.  Perhaps our avoidance of the subject gave her the hint, or it may have been Mrs. Willoughby.’

‘Mrs. Willoughby?’

’She is related to the Gorley family as well as to us.  It was through her Clarice first met Gorley,’ he explained, and went on.  ’Then you returned to England, and were interviewed in the Meteor.  Clarice read the interview; you had described in it your march to Boruwimi, and she sent through Mallinson at once an invitation to you.  I only found that out the night you were introduced to us at the theatre.  It made me certain that she had suspicions, and I admit that I asked you to call in the hope of allaying them.  I believed, foolishly as it seems, that if I was cordial, she would give up any ideas she might have, that you were connected in any way with Gorley’s death.  Afterwards, Drake, I need hardly tell you, I was glad you came here upon other grounds.’  Mr. Le Mesurier leaned forward in his chair and touched Drake upon the knee.  ’It didn’t take long for me to conceive a genuine liking for you, and, of course, I knew all the time that you had only done your duty.’

Drake made no response whatever to Mr. Le Mesurier’s sentiment.

‘I understand, then,’ he said, ’that Miss Le Mesurier was engaged to Gorley at the time of his death?’