"I had passed it in the afternoon, and from what Marshall said to Jenner, I know'd it was the Turnpike House. Well, sir, I scrambled a lot, and got mixed---- I don't know where I got. Then I heard a scuffle and a cry, and saw in the mist two men fighting."
"Marshall and Job," thought Heron; then aloud, "Go on!"
"I thought as someone else might be after the red book, so I was going to run forward when one cove he slipped away, and after groaning awful the other he went too. He was shaken a lot by the fight. I stayed where I was for a time, then I creeps forward and lights a match."
"What did you do that for?"
"I wanted to see if in the fight the red book had been dropped. How was I to know that one of them wasn't Jenner in spite of his going on to the Turnpike! When I casts a light," he resumed. "I saw something glittering on the ground. It was a broken link, and I examined it by another match. There was two links. One piece was a champagne bottle, just as you said, sir, and the other was my pin with the girl; I thought they were pretty and saw they were gold, so I puts them into my coat pocket."
"How did you lose them, then?" Geoffrey asked, thinking this explanation perfectly feasible.
"I only lost one--the champagne bottle," said Jerry quite gravely, "'cause there was a hole in my pocket I know'd nothing of. The other I took home and got made into a pin. I never know'd till you spoke where I lost the one! Was it under the Turnpike window?" he inquired.
"It was found there," assented Heron.
Jerry scratched his head. "I must have shook it out when I was looking in at the window," he muttered.
"Oh, you did look in at the window, then?"