nel's
sitting-room. Grey received him with an air of inquiry, which grew yet
more inquiring when Mr. Flexen told him that he was engaged in
investigating the affair of Lord Loudwater's death. Therefore, Mr.
Flexen came to the point at once.

"I have been informed that Lord Loudwater paid you a visit last night,
and that a violent quarrel ensued, Colonel Grey," he said.

"Pardon me; but the violence was all on Lord Loudwater's part," said
Colonel Grey in an exceedingly unpleasant tone. "I merely made myself
nasty in a quiet way. Violence is not in my line, unless I'm absolutely
driven to it; and any one less likely to drive any one to violence than
that obnoxious and noisy jackass I've never come across. The fellow was
all words--abusive words. He'd no fight in him. I gave him every reason I
could think of to go for me because I particularly wanted to hammer him.
But he hadn't got it in him."

Grey spoke quietly, without raising his voice, but there was a rasp in
his tone that impressed Mr. Flexen. If a man could give such an
impression of dangerousness with his voice, what would he be like in
action? He realized that here was a quite uncommon type of V. C. He
realized, too, that Lord Loudwater had made the mistake of a lifetime in
his attempt to bully him. Moreover, he had a strong feeling that if it
had seemed to Colonel Grey that Lord Loudwater was better out of the
way, and a favourable opportunity had presented itself, he might very
well have displayed little hesitation in putting him out of the way. He
felt that the obnoxious peer would have been little more than a
dangerous dog to him.

He did not speak at once. He looked into Colonel Grey's grey eyes, and
cold and hard they were, weighing him. Then he said: "Lord Loudwater
threatened to hound you out of the Army, I'm told."

"Among other things," said Grey carelessly.

Mr. Flexen guessed that the other things were threats to divorce Lady
Loudwater.

"That would have been a very serious blow to you," he said.

"You're quite--right," said Colonel Grey.

Mr. Flexen could have sworn that he had started to say: "You're quite
wrong," and changed his mind.

The Colonel seemed to hesitate for words; then he went on: "It would have
been a very heavy blow indeed. You can see that for a man who enlisted in
the Artists' Rifles in 1914, and fought his way up to the command of a
regiment, nothing could be more painful. It would have been
heartbreaking; I should ha