"He needs help," muttered Kind, rubbing his bristly chin. "He's in a hole if ever a man was."
"Can you get him out of it?"
"I," the Cheap-Jack feigned surprise, "pore cove like me?"
"I told him you were a detective," put in Elspeth.
"Oh my gal, and arter wot I said to----"
"Pooh, pooh," broke in the little doctor good-humouredly, "what is the use of doing things by halves? We three want to help an innocent man, so it is just as well we should understand one another."
"You are Mr. Herries' friend?" asked Kind, cautiously.
"I'm sure he is," said Elspeth fervently.
"Well then," Kind rolled his hat round and round in his large hands. "'Spose we get to business. If you mean well by the cove as is under suspicion, take me up to see the corpse's bedroom."
"Why?" asked Browne, somewhat startled by this blunt request.