"You have seen my customers, and all that has passed between me and them."
"Well?"
"Well?" he said, mocking me. "Is there not one among them upon whom your suspicions are fixed? Is there not one among them who could, if he chose, supply us with a starting-point? I say 'us,' because we are comrades."
"Fool, fool, that I was!" I exclaimed, involuntarily raising my hand to my forehead. "Why did I allow him to escape?"
"Why did you let whom escape you?" asked Devlin, in a bantering tone.
"The man whose beard and moustache you shaved off. He must have a reason, a vital reason, for effecting this disguise in himself. And I have let him slip through my fingers!"
"He has a vital reason for so disguising himself," said Devlin, "but it has no connection with the murder of Lizzie Melladew."
"Then what do you mean?" I cried, "by asking me whether I have not received a clue?"
"Was your attention attracted to no other of my customers than this man?"
"There was only one who was known to me--Mr. Kenneth Dowsett."