Neddy laughed. "Then all about the letter will come out, and Mr. Craver will be put in chokey. There ain't no sense, in that."
"Do you know the truth?"
"No." Neddy looked innocently surprised. "How should I know the truth? I only come to Maranatha just after the old cove had been murdered. But I'm uncommonly certain as Mr. Craver hadn't no hand in the business."
"Can you help me to prove that?" pleaded Claudia, who saw very well that the boy was a valuable witness if dealt with diplomatically.
"I can give you a tip," said Neddy, after a pause.
"Give it to me, then."
"Go and ask Sergeant Purse to show you the knife as was used."
"What good will that do?"
"Well," said Master Mellin, shrewdly, "it seems to me, though, I'm only a boy, as Sergeant Purse ought to hunt for the cove as owns that knife. It was sticking in the heart of the old cove you know, and the sergeant has it. I saw it at the inquest, and it don't seem to be the kind of knife Mr. Craver would use, nohow. Mr. Craver, he cut on Hall's bike; but the cove as did the trick, miss, cleared out in another way."
Claudia asked further questions, and received evasive answers. Master Mellin evidently had said all that he intended to say at the moment, so there was little use in prolonging the conversation. Along with the boy, Claudia climbed up the path again, and left Neddy again at the Rectory gate. In a most polite way, he lifted his straw hat in farewell; but she detained him for a few minutes, in the hope of getting him to say more. He smiled like an angel, shook his head like an old man, and resolutely refused to open his mouth. There was nothing for it but to let him go, which Claudia did.