troubled by the interrogatory.

"Do you mind if I ask you, sir, why you are seeking this information?" he
inquired, after a thoughtful pause.

"A very proper question. Mr. David Hume-Frazer is a friend of mine, and he
has sought my help to clear away the mystery attached to his cousin's
death."

"But why do you come to me?"

"Because you are a very likely person to have some knowledge on the point
I raised. You see every person who enters or leaves Stowmarket by train."

"That is true. We railway men see far more than people think," said the
official, with a smile. "But it is very odd that you should be the first
gentleman to think of talking to me in connection with the affair, though
I can assure you certain things puzzled me a good deal at the time."

"And what were they?"

"You are the gentleman who came here three days ago with Mr. David, whom,
by the way, I hardly recognised at first?"

"Exactly."

"Well, I suppose it is all right. I did not interfere because I could not
see my way clear to voluntarily give evidence. Of course, were I summoned
by the police, it would be a different matter. The incidents of that New
Year's Eve fairly bewildered me."