said. 'If you'll give me your attention for half an hour I am going
to tell you a story.'

I can see yet that bright room with the deers' heads and the old
prints on the walls, Sir Harry standing restlessly on the stone curb
of the hearth, and myself lying back in an armchair, speaking. I
seemed to be another person, standing aside and listening to my
own voice, and judging carefully the reliability of my tale. It was
the first time I had ever told anyone the exact truth, so far as I
understood it, and it did me no end of good, for it straightened out
the thing in my own mind. I blinked no detail. He heard all about
Scudder, and the milkman, and the note-book, and my doings in
Galloway. Presently he got very excited and walked up and down
the hearth-rug.

'So you see,' I concluded, 'you have got here in your house the
man that is wanted for the Portland Place murder. Your duty is to
send your car for the police and give me up. I don't think I'll get
very far. There'll be an accident, and I'll have a knife in my ribs an
hour or so after arrest. Nevertheless, it's your duty, as a law-abiding
citizen. Perhaps in a month's time you'll be sorry, but you have no
cause to think of that.'

He was looking at me with bright steady eyes. 'What was your
job in Rhodesia, Mr Hannay?' he asked.

'Mining engineer,' I said. 'I've made my pile cleanly and I've had
a good time in the making of it.'

'Not a profession that weakens the nerves, is it?'