“Captain Monck,” observed Lady Harriet, elevating her long nose, “seems to be exceptionally well qualified for that kind of service.”

“Set a thief to catch a thief, what?” suggested Oakes lightly.  “Yes, he seems to be quite good at it.  Just as well in a way, perhaps.  Someone has got to do the dirty work, though it would be preferable for all of us if he were a policeman by profession.”

It was too carelessly spoken to sound actively malevolent.  But Tommy, with his arms gripped round his knees, raised eyes of bloodshot fury to the speaker’s face.

“If any one could take a first class certificate for dirty work, it would be you,” he said, speaking very distinctly between clenched teeth.

A sudden silence fell upon the assembly.  Oakes looked down at Tommy, and Tommy glared up at Oakes.

Then abruptly Major Ralston, who had been standing in the background with a tall drink in his hand, slouched forward and let himself down ponderously on the edge of the verandah by Tommy’s side.

“Go away, Bertie!” he said.  “We’ve listened to your wind instrument long enough.  Tommy, you shut up, or I’ll give you the beastliest physic I know!  What were we talking about?  Mary, give us a lead!”

He appealed to his wife, who glanced towards Lady Harriet with a hint of embarrassment.

Major Ralston at once addressed himself to her.  He was never embarrassed by any one, and never went out of his way to be pleasant without good reason.

“This murder trial is going to be sensational,” he said, “I’ve just got back from giving evidence as to the cause of death and I have it on good authority that a certain august personage in Markestan is shaking in his shoes as to the result of the business.”

“I have heard that too,” said Lady Harriet.

It was a curious fact that though she was always ready, and would even go out of her way, to snub the surgeon’s wife, she had never once been other than gracious to the surgeon.

“I don’t suppose he will be actively implicated.  He’s too wily for that,” went on Major Ralston.  “But there’s not much doubt according to Barnes, that he was in the know—­very much so, I should imagine.”  He glanced about him.  “Mrs. Ermsted isn’t here, is she?”

“No dear.  I left her resting,” his wife said.  “This affair is very trying for her—­naturally.”  He assented somewhat grimly.  “I wonder she stayed for it.  Now Tessa on the other hand yearns for the murderer’s head in a charger.  That child is getting too Eastern in her ideas.  It will be a good thing to get her Home.”

Mrs. Burton intervened with a simper.  “Yes, she really is a naughty little thing, and I cannot say I shall be sorry when she is gone.  My small son is at such a very receptive age.”

“Yes, he’s old enough to go to school and be licked into shape,” said Major Ralston brutally.  “He flings stones at my car every time I pass.  I shall stop and give him a licking myself some day when I have time.”