"You allude to the matter of the string with five knots, I suppose?" Wilfrid asked.
A look of surprise crossed Russell's face.
"What on earth do you know about that?" he asked.
"You forget that I was in the Malay Archipelago myself," Wilfrid responded. "You seem to have forgotten the tragic death of the white man I told you about. Besides, I was in Flower's house at the very moment when he received his warning in a registered letter, and that letter came from Borneo."
"Come along," he said. "We have cut it quite fine enough. You can tell me the rest in the train."
They found a carriage to themselves which they entered as the train was starting, secure in the knowledge that they would be uninterrupted till Victoria Station was reached.
"Now tell me your story," Russell suggested.
"I think I am going to tell you more than you expect," Wilfrid smiled. "But I will begin at the beginning, from the moment that I entered Flower's house. I was sent for in a hurry, because the great man had cut his hand and he was frightened to death, as people of his class always are. I suppose you know that he has a niece, Miss Galloway, living with him?"
"Yes, I know that," Russell said with a grin. "On the whole, I should say you are a lucky individual. But go on. Don't mind my chaff."
"Well, there was nothing much the matter with his hand, as you may imagine. I'll come to the registered letter episode presently, but I want to tell you first how it was that Flower's accident came about. Miss Galloway was sitting in the conservatory and she distinctly saw a man place his arm through a broken pane of glass and try to unlatch the door. She called to her uncle, who gave chase, but the man had vanished leaving no trace behind him. It was in hurrying after him that Flower fell and cut himself. He was sitting waiting in the conservatory for me, when Miss Galloway introduced me and told me about the incident that had startled her so much. She went on to say that the man was fishing for the latch with a loop of string, whereupon Flower broke in in his elegant way and declared that the whole thing was a pack of nonsense. By way of proving her theory Miss Galloway picked up the piece of string which had fallen from the man's hand inside the doorway and handed it to her uncle. I suppose you can give a pretty good guess what sort of string it was."