Fifteen
“I ought to have known it all along,” said Tuppence.
She was reviving her shattered nerves by a generous tot of old brandy,and was beaming alternately at Tommy and at Mr. Grant—and at Albert,who was sitting in front of a pint¹ of beer and grinning from ear to ear.
“Tell us all about it, Tuppence,” urged Tommy.
“You first,” said Tuppence.
“There’s not much for me to tell,” said Tommy. “Sheer accident let meinto the secret of the wireless² transmitter. I thought I’d get away with it,but Haydock was too smart for me.”
Tuppence nodded and said:
“He telephoned to Mrs. Sprot at once. And she ran out into the drive andlaid in wait for you with the hammer. She was only away from the bridgetable for about three minutes. I did notice she was a little out of breath—but I never suspected her.”
“After that,” said Tommy, “the credit belongs entirely³ to Albert. He camesniffing round like a faithful dog. I did some impassioned morse snoringand he cottoned on to it. He went off to Mr. Grant with the news and thetwo of them came back late that night. More snoring! Result was, I agreedto remain put so as to catch the sea forces when they arrived.”
Mr. Grant added his quota⁴.
“When Haydock went off this morning, our people took charge at Smug-glers’ Rest. We nabbed the boat this evening.”
“And now, Tuppence,” said Tommy. “Your story.”
“Well, to begin with, I’ve been the most frightful⁵ fool all along! I suspec-ted everybody here except Mrs. Sprot! I did once have a terrible feeling ofmenace, as though I was in danger—that was after I overheard the tele-phone message about the fourth of the month. There were three peoplethere at the time—I put down my feeling of apprehension⁶ to either Mrs.
Perenna or Mrs. O’Rourke. Quite wrong—it was the colourless Mrs. Sprotwho was the really dangerous personality.
“I went

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