‘So people say,’ said Mr. Puddephatt sharply, as if to intimate that people would say anything.
‘It’s perfectly good silver, isn’t it?’ Richard asked.
‘Oh, it’s good enough!’ Mr. Puddephatt admitted in the same tone as he had said ‘Oh, they’re safe enough!’ a few moments before.
‘How long has Mr. Craig lived at the Queen’s Farm?’
‘About two years,’ said Mr. Puddephatt.
Mr. Simon Lock, then, was wrongly informed. Mr. Lock had said that Craig had lived at the farm for many years.
‘Where did he come from?’
‘Before that he had a small house under Dunstable Downs—rather a lonesome place, near them big chalk-pits,’ Mr. Puddephatt answered. ‘He seems to like lonesome houses.’
‘Near the chalk-pits, eh?’ said Richard.
‘As you’re a motorcar gent,’ said Mr. Puddephatt later, ‘I reckon I can’t sell you a horse.’