J. S. Fletcher

“ Very well, young man—that there person came to this house one afternoon about a fortnight ago!”
“Alone?” asked Cherry.
“No! He’d another man with him,” replied the landlady. “I see ’em come—I happened to be at the front, buying some fish. They come along the road from Kingshaven—walking. The other man was a big, broadly built, clean-shaven fellow, well-dressed in a blue suit—they both wore blue suits—serge, you know, young man, like sea-going men affects for their best: I took particular notice of both of ’em. ”

“ You see, the local police—Veller, of course—told me what you’d already said, and I suggested to them that instead of putting you in the witness-box this afternoon, it would be far better if I just called and had a bit of quiet talk with you. Ladies, I know, don’t care about going into witness-boxes.”
“Well, I don’t know that they’d have got anything much out of me if I had gone into the box,” remarked Keziah. “As to finding that poor fellow, Captain Marigold and Veller saw as much as Ben and me did, and as to anything else—try a bit of that hot tea-cake, now!” ”

“ Perhaps this man’s people aren’t over anxious to acknowledge any relationship. But I’ve no doubt somebody will be coming forward who knows something about him.”
I was ready then, and Cherry and I went off to a car which was waiting at the end of the lane. Once outside the garden gate he gave me a knowing look.
“I wasn’t going to say anything before your sister,” he said, “but I’ve heard of a bit of possible information, though I don’t know of what value it may be. ”

“ All the same, I couldn’t call that big man to mind—still, he seemed to ha’ been here before, and, as I say, he turned, quite natural-like, into that little parlour and sat himself down.”
“Did they stay long?” inquired Cherry.
“Most of two hours,” replied Mrs. Tappen. “The big man drank brandy and water; the man with the rings in his ears, rum. They talked together—with their heads close: from what I saw of ’em it seemed to be very confidential business. At last they went off, and I saw ’em go back by the same road—Kingshaven way.”
“And that was the last, I suppose?” asked Cherry. ”

“ Tappen. “The big man came here again—last Monday. He walked in about four o’clock, and he asked at once if I remembered him being here a fortnight before with a friend, and if the friend had been in that day? ”