Page:ManInBrownSuit-Christie.pdf/236

Rh my opinion, rather a stupid man. It never seemed to occur to him that girls do not always tell the truth.

"Kimberley too. What are they doing there?" he muttered.

"Yes, that surprised me. I should have thought Miss Anne would have been in the thick of it here, gathering copy for the Daily Budget."

"Kimberley," he said again. The place seemed to upset him. "There's nothing to see there—the pits aren't being worked."

"You know what women are," I said vaguely.

He shook his head and went off. I have evidently given him something to think about.

No sooner had he departed than my Government official reappeared.

"I hope you will forgive me for troubling you again, Sir Eustace," he apologized. "But there are one or two questions I should like to ask you."

"Certainly, my dear fellow," I said cheerfully. "Ask away."

"It concerns your secretary"

"I know nothing about him," I said hastily. "He foisted himself upon me in London, robbed me of valuable papers—for which I shall be hauled over the coals—and disappeared like a conjuring trick at Cape Town. It's true that I was at the Falls at the same time as he was, but I was at the hotel, and he was on an island. I can assure you that I never set eyes upon him the whole time that I was there."

I paused for breath.

"You misunderstand me. It was of your other secretary that I spoke."

"What? Pagett?" I cried, in lively astonishment. "He's been with me eight years—a most trustworthy fellow."