“Did he send her to you with that message?”

 

“Not exactly, sir. I was bringing a tray with soda and whisky when Miss Flora,

who was just coming out of this room, stopped me and said her uncle didn’t want

to be disturbed.”

 

The inspector looked at the butler with rather closer attention than he had

bestowed on him up to now.

 

“You’d already been told that Mr. Ackroyd didn’t want to be disturbed, hadn’t

you?”

 

Parker began to stammer. His hands shook.

 

“Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Quite so, sir.”

 

“And yet you were proposing to do so?”

 

“I’d forgotten, sir. At least I mean, I always bring the whisky and soda about

that time, sir, and ask if there’s anything more, and I thought—well, I was

doing as usual without thinking.”

 

It was at this moment that it began to dawn upon me that Parker was most

suspiciously flustered. The man was shaking and twitching all over.