"Certainly not," said Lord Peter. "What about?"
"Ah!" said Mr. Watchett, "there it is, wot abaht?"
"Tell me," said Lord Peter, "do you recollect Grimethorpe comin' into Stapley on October 13th-a Wednesday, it was?"
"That would be the day of the-ah! to be sure! Yes, I do recollect it, for I remember thinking it was odd him comin' here except on a market-day. Said he 'ad ter look at some machinery-drills and such, that's raight. 'E was 'ere raight enough."
"Do you remember what time he came in?"
"Well, naow, I've a fancy 'e was 'ere ter lunch. The waitress'd know. 'Ere, Bet!" he called through the side door, "d'yer 'appen to recollect whether Mr. Grimethorpe lunched 'ere October the 13th-Wednesday it were, the d'y the pore gent was murdered over at Riddlesdale?"
"Grimethorpe o' Grider's Hole?" said the girl, a well-grown young Yorkshire woman. "Yes! 'E took loonch, and coom back to sleep. Ah'm not mistook, for Ah waited on 'un, an' took up 'is watter i' t'morning, and 'e only gied me tuppence."
"Monstrous!" said Lord Peter. "Look here, Miss Elizabeth, you're sure it was the thirteenth? Because I've got a bet on it with a friend, and I don't want to lose the money if I can help it. You're positive it was Wednesday night he slept here? I could have sworn it was Thursday."
"Naay, sir, t'wor Wednesday for I remember hearing the men talking o' t'murder i' t'bar, an' telling Mester Grimethorpe next daay."
"Sounds conclusive. What did Mr. Grimethorpe say about it?"
"There now," cried the young woman, "'tis queer you should ask that; everyone noticed how strange he acted. He turned all white like a sheet, and looked at both his hands, one after the other, and then he pushes 'es hair off's forehead-dazed-like. We reckoned he hadn't got over the drink. He's more often drunk than not. Ah wouldn't be his wife for five hundred pounds."
"I should think not," said Peter; "you can do a lot better than that. Well, I suppose I've lost my money, then. By the way, what time did Mr. Grimethorpe come in to bed?"
"Close on two i' t'morning," said the girl, tossing her head. "He were locked oot, an' Jem had to go down and let 'un in."
"That so?" said Peter. "Well, I might try to get out on a technicality, eh, Mr. Watchett? Two o'clock is Thursday, isn't it? I'll work that for all it's worth. Thanks frightfully. That's all I want to know."
Bet grinned and giggled herself away, comparing the generosity of the strange gentleman with the stinginess of Mr. Grimethorpe. Peter rose.
"I'm no end obliged, Mr. Watchett," he said. "I'll just have a word with Jem. Don't say anything, by the way."
"Not me," said Mr. Watchett; "I knows wot's wot. Good luck, my lord."
Jem corroborated Bet. Grimethorpe had returned at about 1.50 A.M. on October 14th, drunk, and plastered with mud. He had muttered something about having run up against a man called Watson.
The ostler was next interrogated. He did not think that anybody could get a horse and trap out of the stable at night without his knowing it. He knew Watson. He was a carrier by trade, and lived in Windon Street. Lord Peter rewarded his informant suitably, and set out for Windon Street.
But the recital of his quest would be tedious. At a quarter-past noon he joined Bunter at the Meribah memorial.
"Any luck?"
"I have secured certain information, my lord, which I have duly noted. Total expenditure on beer for self and witnesses [garbled], my lord."
Lord Peter paid the fs. sd. without a word, and they adjourned to the "Rose and Crown." Being accommodated in a private parlour, and having ordered lunch they proceeded to draw up the following schedule:
GRIMETHORPE'S MOVEMENTS.
Wednesday, October 13th to Thursday, October 14th.
October 13th:
12.10 P.M. Arrives "Rose and Crown."
13.00 P.M. Lunches.
[Garbled] P.M. Orders two drills from man called Gooch in Trimmer's Lane.
4.30 P.M. Drink with Gooch to clinch bargain.
5.0 P.M. Calls at house of John Watson, carrier, about delivering some dog-food. Watson absent. Mrs. Watson says W. expected back that night. G. says will call again.
5.30 P.M. Calls on Mark Dolby, grocer, to complain about some tinned salmon.
5.45 P.M. Calls on Mr. Hewitt, optician, to pay bill for spectacles and dispute the amount.
6.0 P.M. Drinks with Zedekiah Bone at "Bridge and Bottle."
6.45 P.M. Calls again on Mrs. Watson. Watson not yet home.
7.0 P.M. Seen by Constable [garbled] drinking with several men at "Pig and Whistle." Heard to use threatening language with regard to some person unknown.
7.[??] P.M. Seen to leave "Pig and Whistle" with two men (not yet identified).
October 14th:
1.15 A.M. Picked up by Watson, carrier, about a mile out on road to Riddlesdale, very dirty and ill-tempered, and not quite sober.
1.45 A.M. Let into "Rose and Crown" by James Johnson, potman.
9.0 A.M. Called by Elizabeth Dobbin.
9.30 A.M. In Bar of "Rose and Crown." Hears of man murdered at Riddlesdale. Behaves suspiciously.
10.15 A.M. Cashes cheque £129 [??]s. 8d. at Lloyds Bank.
10.30 A.M. Pays Gooch for drills.
[Garbled] A.M. Leaves "Rose and Crown" for Grider's Hole.
Lord Peter looked at this for a few minutes, and put his finger on the great gap of six hours after 7.20.
"How far to Riddlesdale, Bunter?"
"About thirteen and three-quarter miles, my lord."
"And the shot was heard at 10.55. It couldn't be done on foot. Did Watson explain why he didn't get back from his round till two in the morning?"
"Yes, my lord. He says he reckons to be back about eleven, but his horse cast a shoe between King's Fenton and Riddlesdale. He had to walk him quietly into Riddlesdale-about 3 miles-getting there about ten, and knock up the blacksmith. He turned in to the 'Lord in Glory' till closing time, and then went home with a friend and had a few more. At 12.40 he started off home, and picked Grimethorpe up a mile or so out, near the crossroads."
"Sounds circumstantial. The blacksmith and the friend ought to be able to substantiate it. But we simply must find those men at the 'Pig and Whistle.'"
"Yes, my lord. I will try again after lunch."
It was a good lunch. But that seemed to exhaust their luck for the day, for by three o'clock the men had not been identified, and the scent seemed cold.
Wilkes, the groom, however, had his own contribution to the inquiry. He had met a man from King's Fenton at lunch, and they had, naturally, got to talking over the mysterious murder at the Lodge, and the man had said that he knew an old man living in a hut on the Fell, who said that on the night of the murder he'd seen a man walking over Whemmeling Fell in the middle of the night. "And it coom to me, all of a sooden, it mought be his grace," said Wilkes brightly. Further inquiries elicited that the old man's name was Groot, and that Wilkes could easily drop Peter and Bunter at the beginning of the sheep-path which led up to his hut.
Now had Lord Peter taken his brother's advice, and paid more attention to English country sports than to incunabula and criminals in London-or had Bunter been brought up on the moors, rather than in a Kentish village-or had Wilkes (who was a Yorkshire man bred and born, and ought to have known better) not been so outrageously puffed up with the sense of his own importance in suggesting a clue, and with impatience to have that clue followed up without delay-or had any one of the three exercised common sense-this preposterous suggestion would never have been made, much less carried out, on a November day in the North Riding. As it was, however, Lord Peter and Bunter left the trap at the foot of the moor-path at ten minutes to four, and, dismissing Wilkes, climbed steadily up to the wee hut on the edge of the fell.