"I quite forgot that, sir I did take two glasses off that table."
Recalling Crate's remark that the deceased had probably been poisoned, Fanks was rendered angry and suspicious by this action; but as it was mere folly to quarrel with so clever a woman as Mrs. Boazoph he made light of the circumstance, and observed casually that no doubt the glasses had been washed and put away.
"Yes, sir," assented the landlady, "they were washed and put away by my own hands."
"I have always known you to be an extremely tidy woman," said Fanks, ironically. "Two glasses, you say? Then there were two gentlemen in this room between six and seven?"
"There were two men in this room between six and seven," replied Mrs. Boazoph, making the correction with emphasis.
"Two men, you say? And they came to have a chat--by appointment?"
"I think so, sir. The white man came at six, and the black man arrived an hour later."
"Ho! ho!" said Fanks, rather taken by surprise; "so one of the men was a negro. I see. And who lies dead upstairs?"
"The white man, sir."
"And the negro assassin; what of him?"