id.
They have been known to dynamite a man in Idaho who had done them dirt
in New Jersey ten years before. Do you suppose the Atlantic is going to
stop them?... It takes some sand, I tell you, to be a big business man
in our country. No, sir: the old man knew--had always known--that there
was a whole crowd of dangerous men scattered up and down the States who
had it in for him. My belief is that he had somehow got to know that
some of them were definitely after him at last. What licks me altogether
is why he should have just laid himself open to them the way he did--why
he never tried to dodge, but walked right down into the garden yesterday
morning to be shot at.'

Mr Bunner ceased to speak, and for a little while both men sat with
wrinkled brows, faint blue vapours rising from their cigars. Then Trent
rose. 'Your theory is quite fresh to me,' he said. 'It's perfectly
rational, and it's only a question of whether it fits all the facts, I
mustn't give away what I'm doing for my newspaper, Mr Bunner, but I will
say this: I have already satisfied myself that this was a premeditated
crime, and an extraordinarily cunning one at that. I'm deeply obliged to
you. We must talk it over again.' He looked at his watch. 'I have been
expected for some time by my friend. Shall we make a move?'

'Two o'clock,' said Mr Bunner, consulting his own, as he got up from
the foot-board. 'Ten a.m. in little old New York. You don't know Wall
Street, Mr Trent. Let's you and I hope we never see anything nearer hell
than what's loose in the Street this minute.'

CHAPTER VII: The Lady in Black

The sea broke raging upon the foot of the cliff under a good breeze;
the sun flooded the land with life from a dappled blue sky. In this
perfection of English weather Trent, who had slept ill, went down before
eight o'clock to a pool among the rocks, the direction of which had been
given him, and dived deep into clear water. Between vast grey boulders
he swam out to the tossing open, forced himself some little way against
a coast-wise current, and then returned to his refuge battered and
refreshed. Ten minutes later he was scaling the cliff again, and his
mind, cleared for the moment of a heavy disgust for the affair he had in
hand, was turning over his plans for the morning.

It was the day of the inquest, the day after his arrival in the place.
He had carried matters not much further after parting with the American
on the road to Bishopsbridge.