He stretched out his hands and with clenched jaws prayed that one day he might hold the man’s neck between them, and see his face turn livid and purple as he died.

‘I am going to this fool of a doctor, and then I shall go to Skene.’

‘You must let us come with you,’ said Susie.

‘You need not be frightened,’ he answered.  ’I shall not take any steps of my own till I find the law is powerless.’

‘I want to come with you all the same.’

‘As you like.’

Susie went out and ordered a trap to be got ready.  But since Arthur would not wait, she arranged that it should be sent for them to the doctor’s door.  They went there at once, on foot.

Dr Richardson was a little man of five-and-fifty, with a fair beard that was now nearly white, and prominent blue eyes.  He spoke with a broad Staffordshire accent.  There was in him something of the farmer, something of the well-to-do tradesman, and at the first glance his intelligence did not impress one.

Arthur was shewn with his two friends into the consulting-room, and after a short interval the doctor came in.  He was dressed in flannels and had an old-fashioned racket in his hand.

’I’m sorry to have kept you waiting, but Mrs Richardson has got a few lady-friends to tea, and I was just in the middle of a set.’

His effusiveness jarred upon Arthur, whose manner by contrast became more than usually abrupt.

’I have just learnt of the death of Mrs Haddo.  I was her guardian and her oldest friend.  I came to you in the hope that you would be able to tell me something about it.’

Dr Richardson gave him at once, the suspicious glance of a stupid man.

’I don’t know why you come to me instead of to her husband.  He will be able to tell you all that you wish to know.’

‘I came to you as a fellow-practitioner,’ answered Arthur.  ’I am at St Luke’s Hospital.’  He pointed to his card, which Dr Richardson still held.  ’And my friend is Dr Porhoet, whose name will be familiar to you with respect to his studies in Malta Fever.’

‘I think I read an article of yours in the B.M.J.’ said the country doctor.

His manner assumed a singular hostility.  He had no sympathy with London specialists, whose attitude towards the general practitioner he resented.  He was pleased to sneer at their pretensions to omniscience, and quite willing to pit himself against them.

‘What can I do for you, Mr Burdon?’

’I should be very much obliged if you would tell me as exactly as possible how Mrs Haddo died.’

‘It was a very simple case of endocarditis.’

‘May I ask how long before death you were called in?’

The doctor hesitated.  He reddened a little.

‘I’m not inclined to be cross-examined,’ he burst out, suddenly making up his mind to be angry.  ’As a surgeon I daresay your knowledge of cardiac diseases is neither extensive nor peculiar.  But this was a very simple case, and everything was done that was possible.  I don’t think there’s anything I can tell you.’