J. S. Fletcher

“ Blick silently drew out his copy of the reward bill and handed it to the woodman; the Professor, keenly attentive, saw Roper's eyes brighten at sight of the heavy type in which the particulars of Mrs. Braxfield's reward were printed. He drew his heavy brows together as he laboriously read through the offer.
"How does that strike you?" asked Blick presently. "There's a hundred pounds to be picked up by anybody who can tell a bit. If you know anything—mind, Roper, I'm not implying that you do!—but—if you do—eh?" ”

“ You'd a pretty good grudge against Guy Markenmore yourself, eh?"
Roper scowled more darkly than before.
"Don't know nothing certain about how he come by his end, anyhow," he muttered. "And as to grudges, there's them around here as knows how that varmint treated I! Ain't a decent man, same as what I've been, a right to have his feelings about another man as treated him bad?"
"You've the same right to your feelings that every other man has," agreed Blick. "Who says you haven't?" ”

“ I'm certain Jim Roper didn't kill Guy Markenmore, because if he had he's just the man to have let it be known that he'd had his revenge! He wouldn't have cared twopence if they'd hanged him next day!"
Blick exchanged another word or two with Daffy as to Roper's exact location, and he and his companion went off. The Professor marched along in silence for awhile.
"That woman possesses a power of keen insight into character," he remarked at last. "She'd make a useful member of your force, Blick! ”

“ There, beside the fallen pine, stood a man, at that moment in the act of lighting his short clay pipe. His ax lay against the tree which it had just felled; near it a dog was curled up against its master's coat. It cocked an ear and opened an eye as the two strangers drew near; at its low growl, the man turned and gave his visitors a sullen, questioning glance.
"A formidable-looking fellow!" murmured the Professor. "And that ax of his is a fearsome weapon, Blick! ”

“ Blick's memory went back to the first conversation he had overheard at the Sceptre, and to the remarks of certain of the village men as to the feelings of enmity cherished by various unnamed persons of the neighbourhood against Guy Markenmore. ”

“ I'm sure she's quite right in what she said just now. A man of the sort she described, who'd nursed his desire for revenge all these years, wouldn't care very much who knew that he'd satisfied it at last. ”