s bank--going right down to the meadow opposite the Station
Hotel? Very well--now, supposing it was Joseph with whom Hollis wound up
that telephone talk, suppose it was Joseph whom Hollis was to see. What
would happen? Joseph knew that Hollis was at the Station Hotel. The
straightest and easiest way from the Station Hotel to Joseph's house
is--straight along the river bank. Now then, call on your memory! What
did Mrs. Pratt tell us? 'When I was going back to the bar,' says Mrs.
Pratt, 'I heard more. "Along the river-side," says the gentleman.
"Straight on from where I am--all right." Then, after a minute, "At
seven-thirty, then?" he says. "All right--I'll meet you." And after
that,' concludes Mrs. Pratt, 'he rings off.' Now, why shouldn't it be
Joseph Chestermarke that he was going to meet?--remember, again, the
river-side path leads straight to Joseph's house. Come!--Mrs. Pratt's
story doesn't point conclusively to Horbury at all. It's as I say--the
telephone conversation may have begun with Horbury, but it may have
ended with--somebody else. And what I say is--who was the precise
person whom Hollis went to meet?"

"Are you going to tell all that to Starmidge?" asked Betty admiringly.
"Because I'm sure it's never entered his head--so far."

"Depends," replied Neale. "Let's see if the tinker has anything to tell.
He's at home, anyway. There's his fire."

A spiral of blue smoke, curling high above the green and gold of the
gorse bushes, revealed Creasy's whereabouts. He had shifted his camp
since their first meeting with him: his tilted cart, his tethered pony,
and his fire, were now in a hollow considerably nearer the town. Neale
and Betty looked down into his retreat to find him busily mending a
collection of pots and pans, evidently gathered up during his round of
the previous day. He greeted his visitors with a smile, and fetched a
three-legged stool from his cart for Betty's better accommodation.

"Heard anything?" asked Neale, seating himself on a log of wood.

The tinker pointed to several newspapers which lay near at hand, kept
from blowing away by a stone placed on the uppermost.

"Only what's in these," he answered. "I've read all that--so I'm pretty
well posted up, mister. I've just read this morning's--bought it in the
town when I went to fetch some bread. Queer affair altogether, I call
it!"

"Have you looked round about at all?" asked Betty.

"I've been a good bit over the Hollow, miss," answered Cr