"That's so," he admitted. "Seems to me I may have been a bit
indiscreet in talking so much to that young reporter. I have just
read his account of my interview, and he's got it pat, word by
word. Now, Mr. Jacks, if you'll just invest a halfpenny in that
newspaper, you don't need to ask me any questions. That young man
had a kind of pleasant way with him, and I told him all I knew."

"Just so, Mr. Coulson," the Inspector answered. "At the same time
nothing that you told him throws any light at all upon the
circumstances which led to the poor fellow's death."

"That," Mr. Coulson declared, "is not my fault. What I don't know
I can't tell you."

"You were acquainted with Mr. Fynes some years ago?" the
Inspector asked. "Can you tell me what business he was in then?"

"Same as now, for anything I know," Mr. Coulson answered. "He was
a clerk in one of the Government offices at Washington."

"Government offices," Inspector Jacks repeated. "Have you any
idea what department?"

Mr. Coulson was not sure.

"It may have been the Excise Office," he remarked thoughtfully.
"I did hear, but I never took any particular notice."

"Did you ever form any idea as to the nature of his work?"