“Looked sound enough, I suppose, when it passed through the lock?”
“Well, you see, sir, we don’t take much stock of boats as they come through, not in the ordinary way. Sees too many of ’em, that’s what it is.”
“I suppose, if it comes to that, you don’t take much notice of the people who come through, either? Must be a nuisance when this sort of thing happens, having to answer a whole pack of questions about what the gentlemen in the boat looked like, and what was the exact hour at which they went through, and all the rest of it.”
“Well, it’s curious you should say that, sir, because it so happened that I knew just when this boat came through, and was able to give information according. You see, sir, this young gent gets out, and he was anxious for to catch the train at Shipcote Station there. I told him, I did, he ought to have got off at the bridge higher up; then you’d have caught the bus, I says; the bus runs from the bridge to Shipcote Station, I says. Oh, he says, very la-di-da sort of gent he was. Oh, like that he says, I want to catch the nine-fourteen. Well, I says, you’ve time to catch the nine-fourteen by the footpath; it isn’t hardly not a quarter of an hour’s walk, and it’s only five minutes to nine now, I says. The devil it is, he says, begging your pardon, mum, I make it nine o’clock if it’s a minute, he says. So I told him I got the time here by wireless, and showed him my watch, same as it might be to you, and that’s how it was I come to know what the time was when he went off, you see.”
They had tea, to Angela’s delight, in a little arbour overgrown with ramblers and commanding a long vista of the river. She was already losing interest in the purpose of their errand, and accepting the expedition as a holiday. Miles, though he affected an even more conspicuous languor, was addressing strictly business questions to Mr. Burgess, who still hovered about, unskilled to close the floodgates of his own eloquence.
“But of course that was the gentleman you saw on the bank; he was out of the boat, so you had a good look at him. But you wouldn’t have been able to answer for the one who stayed in the canoe—and after all, that’s the corpse; you might be called upon to identify him any day.”
“No, sir, that’s a fact, you don’t see much of a gentleman who just comes through in a boat, especially if he’s wearing of a hat, same as what this one done. Same time, I’d know the other one anywhere. Want to catch the nine-fourteen, he says. Oh, says I, you’ve time to catch the nine-fourteen by the footpath. And so he had, you see.”
“But you’d be ready to swear that there was another gentleman who passed through the lock?” asked Bredon. These reminiscences of a dialectical triumph were becoming somewhat wearisome.
“Excuse me, sir, but were you in any way connected with the police?” asked Mr. Burgess, a chill of suspicion creeping into his voice.
“Good God, no,” answered Bredon fervently.
“No offence meant, sir. But you see how it is. If the police comes to me and asks me questions, then I’m prepared to answer ’em, according to what I know, and I can’t do more than that, can I? But it’s not for me to go out of my way giving information to the police promiscuous, and putting ideas into their heads. Mind you, I’ve nothing against the police, but what I say is, if it’s their business to find out, they’ll ask questions, and then they won’t be told no lies. I’m a law-abiding man, I am, and nothing to fear from anybody, you understand; but I don’t hold with getting mixed up with the police, not if you can help it. Supposing you was the police, sir, and you come and ask me, Was there another gentleman come through the lock? like that, Oh yes, I says. And so there was. But seeing as you’re not connected with ’em, sir, I’ll tell you more than that. There was one of ’em in the canoe when it come through the lock, but how long did he stay in the canoe? That’s what I say, how long did he stay in the canoe?”
“Well, if we knew that, we should be able to tell the newspapers something, shouldn’t we?”
“Ah, sir, them as knows isn’t always them as tells. Now, look here, sir; I’m a plain, ordinary man, you know what I mean; and I don’t set up to know more than another man. But I’ve got eyes, you see. Well, and this is what I’m telling you. When that young gentleman come through the lock in the canoe—same as it might be your canoe, only going down instead of coming up—when that young gentleman come through the lock, he was all sprawling on his back, same as if he was asleep; not steering her, sir, if you’d believe me, but just letting her float broadside on and go down as the wind took her. Ah, says I to myself, you’ve got some game on, you have. You wouldn’t be shamming asleep like that if you hadn’t got some game on, I says. Same time, I didn’t take any notice of him; so long as a gentleman pays his fare, that’s all I’ve got to look to. But it stuck in my head like, you know what I mean. Didn’t seem
