"You remember the terms of our agreement last Wednesday?" he began. "I undertook to suspend application for a search warrant...."
"If we discovered Sylvia," I said. "Yes?"
I hope Nigel did not see my jaw drop. Save for the moment when I looked casually through the other rooms in the Maidenhead bungalow I had completely forgotten the Mavis stipulation. Every plan and hope I had cherished in respect of Joyce had been cherished in vain.
"The time was to expire on Monday, at noon," said the Seraph.
"Exactly. I thought I would remind you that only half the undertaking had been carried out. That is all."
Nigel would make an admirable proctor; he is to the manner born. I had quite the old feeling of being five shillings the poorer for straying round the streets of Oxford at night without academical dress.
I caught the Seraph's eye and made as if to rise.
"One moment," said Arthur. "There is a good deal more to come."
I folded my arms resignedly. Any one may lecture me if it amuses him to do so, but the Seraph ought to have been in bed instead of having to submit to examination by an old K.C.
"The question is a good deal wider," Arthur began. "You, Aintree, are suspected of harbouring at your flat a woman who is wanted by the police on a most serious charge...."
"I thought we'd cleared all this up on Wednesday," I said, with an impatient glance at Nigel.
"No arrangement you may have made on Wednesday is binding on me."
"It was binding on your son, who sits on one side of you," I said, "and on Mr. Nigel Rawnsley, who sits on the other."
Arthur drew himself up, no doubt unconsciously.
"As a Minister of the Crown I cannot be a party to any connivance at crime."
"Philip and Nigel," I said. "As sons of Ministers of the Crown, I hope you will take that to heart."
"One moment!" I interrupted. "Are you speaking as a Minister of the Crown or a father of a family? Sylvia's been restored to you as the result of your son and Nigel conniving at what you hope and believe to be a crime. You wouldn't have got her back without that immoral compromise."
"The flat would have been searched," said Nigel.
"It was. Paddy and Gartside searched it and declared themselves satisfied...."
"Will you repeat that to Gartside?" I asked invitingly. "I fancy not. They searched and declared themselves satisfied. I offered to show the detectives round ten minutes after--by all accounts--this woman ought to have taken refuge there. Anybody could have searched it if they'd approached the owner properly."