Page:Fletcher - The Mortover Grange Affair.pdf/57

 "Well, they were and they weren't. If you saw 'em apart they were; if you saw 'em together they weren't. John was a quiet, well-mannered man; more of what you'd call a gentleman."

After another silence Wedgwood said:

"And that's all you can tell—at present?"

"Strikes me it's a good lot!" answered Stainsby. "But at present it is!"

"Keep it to yourself—strictly!—my lad, and if you hear more or find out more, come and see me at once," said the detective. "You can rely on me to keep it all to myself."

But without betraying any confidence, Wedgwood had already made up his mind to question Thomas Wraypoole as to his movements and doings on the evening of the murder, and within twenty-four hours of seeing Stainsby he found an opportunity of doing so. Thomas visited the police-station for the purpose of examining certain effects of John's which the police had taken possession of at Porteous Road, and he and Wedgwood met.

"Anything turned up?—any more information?" asked Thomas.

"Nothing!" replied the detective. Then, acting as if the notion had just occurred to him, but in reality working on a previously resolved on idea, he got the oil and colour merchant aside.