Nimrod looked at him suspiciously, wondering why the door had been closed.

He looked all round the room but could see nothing to complain of.

He sniffed the air to try if he could detect the odour of tobacco, and if he had not been suffering a cold in the head there is no doubt that he would have perceived it.
However, as it was he could smell nothing but all the same he was not quite satisfied, although he remembered that Crass always gave Philpot a good character.
'I don't like to have men working on a job like this with the door shut,' he said at length.

'It always gives me the idear that the man's 'avin a mike.

You can do what you're doin' just as well with the door open.' Philpot, muttering something about it being all the same to him--shut or open--got down from the steps and opened the door.