18 with the whisper: "Them two are waiting here now, sir." Theydon glanced at his watch.

The hour was ten minutes past eleven.
"Sorry I'm late, gentlemen," he said, on entering the sitting room and finding the detectives seated at his table, seemingly comparing notes, because the Chief Inspector was talking, while Furneaux, the diminutive, was glancing at a notebook.
"We have no reason to complain of being kept waiting a few minutes in such comfortable quarters," said Winter pleasantly.
"O, I fancy I was detained by some zealous assistant of yours," said Theydon, determined to carry the war into the enemy's territory.
At that Furneaux looked up quickly.
"Will you kindly tell me just what you mean, Mr.Theydon ?" said Winter.
"Why?
Is it news to you that a gray limousine car stalked me from Waterloo to--to my friend's house, waited there three hours or more, and has carefully escorted me home?
I dislike that sort of thing.

Moreover, it strikes me as stupid.

I didn't kill Mrs.Lester.It will save you and me a good deal of time and worry if you accept that plain statement as a fact." "Won't you sit down ?" said Winter quietly.

"And--may I smoke?
I didn't like to ask Bates for permission to light up in your absence." Theydon was not to be outdone in coolness.