The Man in the Brown Suit (Musaicum Vintage Mysteries). Agatha Christie

you understand? The Kilmorden Castle sails on Saturday—quite a good boat.”

      I accompanied him a short way along Pall Mall, before we parted. He shook me warmly by the hand, and thanked me again effusively. I walked home reflecting on the curious byways of Governmental policy.

      It was the following evening that Jarvis, my butler, informed me that a gentleman wished to see me on private business, but declined to give his name. I have always a lively apprehension of insurance touts, so told Jarvis to say I could not see him. Guy Pagett, unfortunately, when he might for once have been of real use, was laid up with a bilious attack. These earnest, hardworking young men with weak stomachs are always liable to bilious attacks.

      Jarvis returned.

      “The gentleman asked me to tell you, Sir Eustace, that he comes to you from Mr. Milray.”

      That altered the complexion of things. A few minutes later I was confronting my visitor in the library. He was a well-built young fellow with a deeply tanned face. A scar ran diagonally from the corner of his eye to the jaw, disfiguring what would otherwise have been a handsome though somewhat reckless countenance.

      “Well,” I said, “what’s the matter?”

      “Mr. Milray sent me to you, Sir Eustace. I am to accompany you to South Africa as your secretary.”

      “My dear fellow,” I said, “I’ve got a secretary already. I don’t want another.”

      “I think you do, Sir Eustace. Where is your secretary now?”

      “He’s down with a bilious attack,” I explained.

      “You are sure it’s only a bilious attack?”

      “Of course it is. He’s subject to them.”

      My visitor smiled.

      “It may or may not be a bilious attack. Time will show. But I can tell you this, Sir Eustace, Mr. Milray would not be surprised if an attempt were made to get your secretary out of the way. Oh, you need have no fear for yourself”—I suppose a momentary alarm had flickered across my face—“you are not threatened. Your secretary out of the way, access to you would be easier. In any case, Mr. Milray wishes me to accompany you. The passage money will be our affair, of course, but you will take the necessary steps about the passport, as though you had decided that you needed the services of a second secretary.”

      He seemed a determined young man. We stared at each other and he stared me down.

      “Very well,” I said feebly.

      “You will say nothing to anyone as to my accompanying you.”

      “Very well,” I said again.

      After all, perhaps it was better to have this fellow with me, but I had a premonition that I was getting into deep waters. Just when I thought I had attained peace!

      I stopped my visitor as he was turning to depart.

      “It might be just as well if I knew my new secretary’s name,” I observed sarcastically.

      He considered for a minute.

      “Harry Rayburn seems quite a suitable name,” he observed.

      It was a curious way of putting it.

      “Very well,” I said for the third time.