“I'm coming to that,” nodded the K.C. “I was only preparing you for it by making you realise that Mason worked and lived”—he spoke very solemnly—“in an atmosphere of blackmail.”
He went on. “Now I came upon some very mysterious reports among the papers in his desk and, in the main, it is they which have brought me here to-day. Here is the first one,” and he unfolded one of the sheets of paper he had all the while been holding in his hand. “This is one which was drawn up by that Todhunter man, when it appears he had been commissioned by Mason to find out all he could about a Miss Jean Madeline Castle before she became Mrs. Basil Hilary, the wife of——”
“Good Heavens!” exclaimed Major Battey incredulously, “before she became the wife of our Colonel Hilary, our Colonel Hilary of Rondle Hall
