"For example, if Servettaz had had no reason to examine his tins it might have been some while before he found out that the petrol had been taken." "Indeed, yes," said Servettaz.

"I might even have forgotten that I had not used it myself." "Quite so," said Hanaud, and he turned to Besnard.
"I think that may be important.

I do not know," he said.
"But since the car is gone," cried Besnard, "how could the chauffeur not look immediately at his tins ?" The question had occurred to Ricardo, and he wondered in what way Hanaud meant to answer it.

Hanaud, however, did not mean to answer it.
He took little notice of it at all.

He put it aside with a superb indifference to the opinion which his companions might form of him.
"Ah, yes," he said, carelessly.