"I didn't have nuthin' to do with that. They can't pitch it onto me nohow! I came past the house, that's all I did. I didn't go inside the gate, I didn't. It was Miss Langmore did that murder—or else Mary Billings."
"Did you see anybody round the place when you went past?"
"Not a soul."
"What were you doing around there?"
"Are you an—an officer?"
"Perhaps I am. Anyway, you had best answer my questions."
"I went down to Hopgood's place, to sell some fish I had caught—Mr.
Hopgood can prove it. Then I came straight home."
"Which way did you go to get to Hopgood's?"
"Took the road yonder, around the hill, and crossed the brook at Peabody's bridge—Peabody can prove that, too. He was out in the hayfield and saw me."
Adam Adams took a look at the road mentioned. At a turn there was a cleared spot through the woods and a fair sight could be caught of the rear of the Langmore mansion and of the automobile shed.