"Humph. Well, you're wrong."
"How do you know?"
"Because," said J. R. equably, "I was talking to Depping at that time… Don't gape at me, confound it!" He unscrewed his pipe and blew down the stem. "Now you'll call it suspicious behavior, won't you? Bah.
Man pays a perfectly ordinary visit, and there you are."
Morgan got up. He said: "Holy Saint Patrick! And the suspicious behavior had to come from you…. Did you tell this to Murch?"
"No. Why should I? But now they've brought on all this funny business…"
"Excuse me, sir," said Hugh, "but did you make any footprints?"
J. R. used some bad language. He said it was a matter of indifference to him whether he had made any footprints, and also that he didn't know, and what was this all about anyway?
"I mean," Hugh persisted, "did you go to see him in Morley Standish's shoes?"
J. R. dwelt fancifully on this theme. He pointed out the infrequency of his necessity for borrowing a pair of shoes in order to pay business calls on his associates. Then Morgan remembered the footprint of which he and Murch had taken a plaster cast; and Hugh explained its origin.