“Are you sure of that?”

“Quite sure. I counted every stroke. You see, I wanted to know how long the night was going to be, seein’ I’d have to sleep in that shed. I was in the garden just exactly an hour. I came out of the shed as it struck ten and it wasn’t but a few minutes before I was in the street again.”

“And when was it that you saw the woman in the garden next door?”

“H’m, I don’t just know when that was. I’d been in on the bench quite a while.”

“And the man? When did you see the man?”

“He came past a few minutes after the woman had gone towards the little house in the garden.”

“Ah! there you see, that’s where you made your mistake. It is more than likely that these two did not go to the little house, but that they went somewhere else. Did they walk slowly and quietly?”

“Not a bit of it. They ran almost... Went past as quick as a bat in the night.”

“Then they both appeared to be in a hurry?”

“Yes indeed they did.”