Chapter 10
In his office down town Mr Andrew Pennington was opening his personal mail. Suddenly his fist
clenched¹ itself and came down on his desk with a bang; his face crimsoned² and two big veins³
stood out on his forehead. He pressed a buzzer⁴ on his desk and a smart looking stenographer⁵
appeared with commendable⁶ promptitude. "Tell Mr Rockford to step in here."
"Yes, Mr Pennington."
A few minutes later, Stemdale Rockford, Pennington's partner, entered the office. The two men
were not unlike - both tall, spare, with greying hair and clean-shaven, clever faces.
"What's up, Pennington?"
Pennington looked up from the letter he was re-reading. He said, "Linnet's married."
"What?"
"You heard what I said! Linnet Ridgeway's married!"
"How? When? Why didn't we hear about it?"
Pennington glanced at the calendar on his desk.
"She wasn't married when she wrote this letter, but she's married now. Morning of the fourth.
That's today."
Rockford dropped into a chair.
"Whew! No warning? Nothing? Who's the man?"
Pennington referred again to the letter.
"Doyle. Simon Doyle."
"What sort of a fellow is he? Ever heard of him?"
"No. She doesn't say much..." He scanned the lines of clear, upright handwriting. "Got an idea
there's something hole-and-corner about the business.... That doesn't matter. The whole point is,
she's married."
The eyes of the two men met. Rockford nodded.
"This needs a bit of thinking out," he said quietly.
"What are we going to do about it?"
"I'm asking you."
The two men sat silent. Then Rockford asked, "Got any plan?"
Pennington said slowly: "The Normandie sails today. One of us could just make it."
"You're crazy! What's the big idea?"
Pennington began, "Those British lawyers -" and stopped.

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