As the two men returned to the living room, Hughes overheard some angry words between Bannard and Roger Downing, one of the dwellers in the village.
"But I saw you," Downing was saying.
"You think you did," returned Bannard, "but you're mistaken."
"When?" asked Hughes, suddenly and sharply, of Downing.
"Sunday about noon. Win Bannard was skulking around in the woods just back of this house——"
"Skulking! Take back that word!" cried Bannard.
"Well, you were sauntering around, then, dawdling around, whatever you want it called, but you were there!"
"I was not," declared Bannard.
"And I saw your little motor car waiting for you a bit farther along the road——"
"You did!" and Bannard laughed shortly, "well, as it happens I don't own a motor car!"