'No,' Pirrie said calmly. Tut that gun down. You are very well aware that I could shoot a good deal more quickly than you. Put it down. I should not care to be provoked into a rash act.'

John lowered the shot-gun. In any case it had been ridiculous, he thought, to envisage Pirrie as a figure out of an Elizabethan tragedy.

He said: 'Things must be getting me down. It was a silly thought, wasn't it? If you'd really wanted to dish Millicent, there was nothing to stop you leaving her in London.'

'A good point,' Pirrie said, 'but invalid. You must remember that although I joined your party I did so with reservations as to the truth of the story Buckley asked me to believe. I was willing to engage with you in breaking out of the police cordon because I am extremely devoted to my liberty of action. That was all.'

Millicent said: 'You two can continue the chat. I'm going back to bed.'

'No,' Pirrie said softly, 'stay where you are. Stay exactly where you are.' He touched the barrel of his rifle, and she halted the movement she had just begun. 'I may say that I gave serious, if brief, consideration to the idea of leaving Millicent behind in London. One reason for rejecting it was my assurance that, if nothing worse occurred than civil break-down, Millicent would manage very well by dint of offering her erotic services to the local gang-leader. I did not care for the idea of abandoning her to what might prove an extremely successful career.'

'Would it have mattered?' John asked.

'I am not,' said Pirrie, 'a person on whom humiliation sits lightly. There is a strain in my make-up that some might describe as primitive. Tell me, Custance - we are agreed that the process of law no longer exists in this country?'

'If it does, we'll all hang.'