CHAPTER SEVENTEENBruce Mallaig was still “thinking it out” when he arrived at Mr. Hardwell’s house, invited by the owner to come to hear Macdonald’s elucidation of the “Bridge Mystery”—as the journalists termed it. The room in which the strangely assorted company met had undergone a change since Macdonald last saw it: the Chippendale pieces had gone, and were replaced by Jacobean oak: even the curtains and pictures were different, and Macdonald glancing round, said:
“So your deal went through safely?”
Mr. Hardwell nodded.
“Yes. The stuff’s all out of harm’s way now: a very satisfactory business.”
When Mallaig entered, with his habitually diffident and rather worried look, he found there was quite a party. Mr. and Mrs. Rameses were there, and their son, George. Miss Rosie Willing sat in
