"I dunno."
"But surely—"
"No, I dunno. It was five minutes ago be the clock, but the clock ain't been keepin' sich good time since we took the bird's nest outen ur."
"Thank you," said the Saint shakily.
"You're welcome, sur," said the stationmaster graciously, and resumed his weeding.
The Saint ploughed back through the station on what seemed to be lengthening into an endless pilgrimage. In the station yard he found a new arrival, in the shape of an automobile of venerable aspect against which leaned a no less venerable man in a peaked cap with a clay pipe stuck through the fringe of a moustache that almost hid his chin. Simon went up to him and seized him joyfully.
"Did you just pick up a young lady here — a dark pretty girl in a light-blue suit?"
The man cupped a hand to one ear.
"Pardon?"
Simon repeated his question.