Adders on the Heath

'Atta-baby!' said Laura, rising from her chair. 'He isn't the only one who feels like a starving python.'

'In that case,' said Dame Beatrice, 'perhaps we had better go in to lunch.'

When lunch was over, she suggested that she and Richardson should go for a run in her car while Laura and Denis followed their own devices. George was to drive his employer and the distressed young man, so that, seated together in the Jaguar, they could talk undisturbed. The route was left to George.

'What do you want to know?' asked Richardson, when, having taken the road across a vast expanse of open pasture on which grazed ponies and cattle, the car turned across a bridge and entered magnificent woodland.

'I want to know exactly-and, please realise that I mean what I say-exactly how you spent your time on the day which culminated in your discovery of Mr Colnbrook's body in your tent and your subsequent report to the police.'

'Well, that's easy enough. When you're on your own you remember things ever so much better than when you're one of a party. Let's see, now. Yes.'

'Begin with breakfast,' said Dame Beatrice.

'Breakfast, yes. I got in to breakfast at the hotel at about nine o'clock. Is that near enough?'

'If it is as near as you can get.'

'Yes, well, it would have been just about then, because, you see, I had gone for a walk after I'd had a plunge in the stream. I don't know how far I went, but it would have been about seven miles, I think.'

Two hours' walking, then?'

'About that, I suppose. I stepped it out because, at that time in the morning, at this time of year, it's chilly.'

'Yes. And after breakfast?'

'I did what seems a silly thing now, but I didn't know at the time that I'd be asked to account for my actions. I went by train to New Milton and walked from there to a village where there's an interesting old manor house.'

'That sounds innocent enough.'

'Absolutely. The trouble is that I can't think of anybody who'll swear to my having been there.'

'I see. And then?'

'The manor house has been converted into flats, so I left and went to Milford-on-Sea, where I had lunch at an hotel.'

'Excellent. The waiter will be able to identify you.'

'Then I had a swim-very cold, of course!-and then I went into Lymington and bought some socks at one shop and some Wellington boots at another.'

'Better and better! So what is worrying you, Mr Richardson?'

'I don't really know. I feel as though I'm in a trap. I know the Superintendent suspects me.'

'He probably suspects the members of the Scylla and District club a good deal more strongly, let alone the relatives of the deceased. What did you do after you left Lymington?'

'Nothing much. I caught a bus to the level crossing in this village and walked back to the hotel. There I had dinner, as usual-'

'As usual?'

'Well, by that, I mean I'd dined there on the Thursday and Friday. This was the Saturday, when I'd been expecting Denis to show up, but, of course, I knew he wouldn't, because of the postcard I'd had.'

'Postcard? Ah, yes. You walked into the village and collected it on the Friday morning, I believe. Why did you not have your correspondence addressed to the hotel?'

'Well, it seemed rather a cheek, as I wasn't sleeping there.'

'Dear me! I had no idea that the rising generation entertained such scruples.'

'Everything was to be sent to the hotel once we were in residence, of course-that's to say, from last Saturday onwards. I didn't know, when I made the arrangement, that Denis couldn't come that week-end.'

'Quite. To how many people did you give the poste restante address?'

'To Denis himself, to my mother and to the people whose kid I'd been tutoring.'

'I see. To nobody else?'

'Nobody-but I did tell the Maidstons-my last employers, you know-that I was camping up on the heath.'

'You came to the New Forest last Thursday morning and pitched your tent. At what time?'

'Oh, a quarter to ten, near enough.'

'You left it, on Thursday, for how long?'

'I went back to the hotel at about twelve and got back to camp at about a quarter-past two, I think. I didn't stay in the tent. I bathed and then I explored a bit, and went back to the hotel for tea. I left again at about ten minutes to five, walked a few miles, got to the hotel for a latish dinner and then went back to camp to sleep.'

'It seems to me that anybody who was watching your movements might have had some chance to