"Not I!" he said with a smile. "So don't blame me, Miss Slade. I was
merely a looker-on, a passive spectator--until the right moment
arrived. Do I gather that the right moment had not actually
arrived--for your purpose?"

"You do," answered Miss Slade. "It hadn't. If you had all waited a few
moments you would have had all three men in conference round one of those
tables, and they could have been taken with far less fuss and bother--and
far less danger to me. It's the greatest wonder in the world that I'm not
lying dead on that grass!"

"We are devoutly thankful that you are not," said the chief fervently.
"But--you're not! And the main thing is that the three men are in
custody, and as for interference--"

"It was Chilverton," interrupted Fullaway, who had been staring at his
mysterious secretary as if she were some rare object which he had never
seen before. "Chilverton!--all Chilverton's fault. As soon as he set eyes
on Van Koon nothing would hold him. And what I want to know--"

"We all want to know a good deal," remarked the chief, glancing
invitingly at Miss Slade. "Miss Slade has no doubt a good deal to tell. I
suggest that we walk across to those very convenient chairs which I see
over there by the shrubbery--then perhaps--"

"I want to know a good deal, too," said Miss Slade.

"I don't know who you are, to start with, and I don't know why Mr.
Appleyard happens to be here, to end with."