By the time that there was a knock on the door and an enquiry from a young constable as to whether Miss Silver could come and speak to the Inspectors she was able to give an affirmative reply. Two cups of tea and a lightly boiled egg had been partaken of, the egg being Jennifer’s idea. “You didn’t eat a crumb of breakfast,” she said in a scolding tone, adding darkly, “I saw you.” After which Miss Silver felt quite happy about leaving her in charge.

She found the two Inspectors alone in the study. A chair had been placed in readiness for her. When she had seated herself, Frank Abbott said,

“Well, how did it all strike you? Did that faint mean anything, or didn’t it?”

She took a moment before she replied in a noncommittal voice,

“Mrs. Craddock is in poor heath. She ate no breakfast.”

“And that was all?”

“No, I do not think it was all.”

“It came very pat after Craddock said that they had nothing to hide.”

Miss Silver coughed.

“I do not think that too much stress should be placed upon that.”

His shoulder lifted in the slightest of shrugs. If they had been alone, he might have taxed her with having something up her sleeve. If she had, it would stay there until she was ready to produce it. He said,

“Well, well-” And then, “Any sinister reflections upon the Miss Tremletts?”

“I do not think so.”

He laughed.

“We had them in one at a time-more to give you a smokescreen than for any other reason. Jackson agrees that they have probably never had a stain upon their characters. Plenty to say for themselves, and an earnest desire to be helpful. They would still be here if we hadn’t pushed them off. What did you make of Miranda and her wisp of whimsy? She just sticks to what she said about going for a walk. Remington embroiders on his theme-song. He is much too ethereal a being to concern himself with such earthy matters as where he went, and what he did, and how long it took.”

Inspector Jackson said,

“We ought to be able to check up on him-he’s noticeable enough.”

Miss Silver turned to him with a bright birdlike movement.

“But he was not dressed like that yesterday. He was wearing a dark suit with a navy blue raincoat over it. He had, it is true, one of those rather open shirts, but there was a muffler in the pocket of his coat-he may have been wearing it in the town. He was bare-headed, and of course that very light hair would be noticeable, but there could have been a cap in his pocket too.”

Jackson stared.

“You saw him?”

“We came back together in the five o’clock bus.”

He said, “Well, that fixes something. I know the picture-shop he mentioned-Jarrows. It’s new, and a bit highbrow. They ought to remember him there. Not that he or any of these people are actually under suspicion, you must know, but that pound note poor Wayne spotted-well, there was a definite connection with the Colony, and the Chief Constable thought we had better follow it up, especially in the light of this business yesterday.”

“A most shocking affair, Inspector. And I think I may have some information for you. Of course I only know what I have seen in the papers.”

“Well, I don’t suppose any of us knows much more than that. What is your information?”

“I believe that I may have seen the murderer. My bus was early. Since I was meeting Inspector Abbott at three o’clock, I consulted my watch. It was just seven minutes to three. I was walking slowly up the Station Approach, when a man passed me. His head was extensively bandaged, he walked with a stick, and he was carrying a small suit-case. Since he was not one of the passengers on the bus, he must have emerged from the railway station. Seeing his bandaged condition, it occurred to me that he might be on his way to the hospital. But this was not the case. Inspector Abbott was early for our appointment. As I got into his car, and before we had driven away, I noticed that the bandaged man had crossed the road and was taking the turning which leads into the High Street. I am well acquainted with Ledlington, and at the pace he was going he could certainly have arrived at the County Bank just before three.”

Both the Inspectors were looking at her with the extreme of interest. Frank Abbott said,

“It was certainly the murderer-there isn’t a doubt about that.” His notebook came out. “Now everything you can give us-every detail. Height?”

She paused for a moment, calling up a picture of that limping figure.

“I suppose I should have to say medium. He walked with a stick, he limped. That might take off from a man’s height, but by creating the impression that he was stooping it might also give one the idea that he was taller than he appeared to be. And he was wearing a loose light raincoat, one of those mass-produced drab garments worn by every second man at this time of year. They are very disguising to the figure. A thin man may look larger, or a spreading figure a good deal slighter than it actually is. There is no doubt that the bandages were part of a calculated disguise, and they could have been fastened together so as to enable them to be put on and off like a cap. I think we may assume that the effect of the limp and of the loose raincoat was also very carefully calculated.”

Inspector Jackson was dark and serious. If his mind did not move quite as quickly as Frank Abbott’s, it was both intelligent and thorough. He said,

“Yes, that’s right. He would have put on the bandages in the station-maybe the raincoat too. The two-fortyfive was just in, and there would be far too many people coming and going for anyone to notice whether a bandaged man went into a waiting room. They would see him come out, but no one would connect him with quite a different looking person who went in, and by the time he did come out there wouldn’t be so many people to see him, because the crowd would have cleared. There’s no doubt at all that it was all very carefully thought out.”

Frank Abbott nodded.

“Very slick timing,” he said. He turned to Miss Silver. “Look here, let’s go on with this question of size. Just for the sake of comparison, and without any invidious implications and so forth, how would any of the people here fit in? Try for a mind’s-eye picture of any one of them in the bandages and the raincoat, plus limp and stick.”

Miss Silver’s hands were demurely folded in her lap. She had been looking down at them. She now lifted her eyes and said,

“Either you or Inspector Jackson would be out of the question. You are both too tall. You, I think, are six foot, and he must be a little more. So much height could not be disguised by a limp.”

Under a surface twinge of amusement Frank applauded her just and temperate mind. If she was to fit caps, there should be no exceptions. He said in a meditative voice,

“Craddock isn’t so tall. Above five-foot-ten?”

“I think not quite as much. He is one of those people who look taller than they really are. Those loose blouses give height and width, and the sandals which he affects have those thick wedge soles. And then there is all that hair,”

“You don’t mean-”

She said, with composure,

“You must not read any special meaning into my words. I am merely answering your question to the best of my ability. I had better continue. Elaine Tremlett certainly did not leave Deep End, and neither she nor Miss Gwyneth could pass as a man. Quite a small man looks tall in women’s clothes, and a woman dressed as a man appears to lose height. Miss Gwyneth is definitely not tall enough to have passed as the man I saw. Miranda, on the other hand, must be about five-foot-eight. Her immense mop of hair, its noticeable colour, and the flowing garments which she affects make her look even taller, but I think that my estimate of her height is correct. Then there is Mr. Remington. His fragility makes him appear smaller than he really is. His neck is so very thin, and those open shirts display it. His face, very delicately modelled, and that fine hair of his, all add to this effect. He too wears sandals, but instead of having the new wedge soles they are of the old-fashioned flat kind.”