“The removal of the well cover and the pump rather suggested something of the kind, but for the moment I can’t quite recall the permission.”
“I feel sure that under the circumstance you won’t withhold it. Better lower that lantern with the candle, Sergeant, before you send a man down. We want to be sure the air is good.”
“If it’s not an impertinence,” Domlio remarked, with ironic politeness, “I should be interested to know why you are not using the existing pump.”
“I didn’t think it was in working order. Is the well used?”
“An explanation, complete, no doubt, but scarcely satisfying. It did not occur to you to try it?”
“No, sir. Too noisy. But what about the well?”
“Ah yes, the well. The well is used—in summer. We have a gravity supply from the hill behind the house, but it fails in summer; hence pumping from the well.”
This statement was very satisfactory to French. It cleared up a point which had been worrying him. If it were possible to get rid of the clothes by throwing them down the well, why had Pyke’s body not been disposed of in the same way? But now this was explained. The condition of the water in the following summer would have led to investigation.
“Try the fixed pump, Sergeant. It may save us rigging the other.”
But a test showed that the valve leathers were dry and not holding, and they went on with their original program.