I agreed. In the two years that Geoffrey Raymond has been secretary to Ackroyd,

I have never seen him ruffled or out of temper. And he has been, I know, a most

efficient secretary.

 

In a minute or two Raymond returned, accompanied by Blunt.

 

“I was right,” said Raymond excitedly. “It _is_ the Tunisian dagger.”

 

“Major Blunt hasn’t looked at it yet,” objected the inspector.

 

“Saw it the moment I came into the study,” said the quiet man.

 

“You recognized it then?”

 

Blunt nodded.

 

“You said nothing about it,” said the inspector suspiciously.

 

“Wrong moment,” said Blunt. “Lot of harm done by blurting out things at the

wrong time.”

 

He returned the inspector’s stare placidly enough.

 

The latter grunted at last and turned away. He brought the dagger over to Blunt.