"What?" Hannasyde said. "Did you say 9.15?"
"Yes, Sir. But I wouldn't want to mislead you. It might have been a minute or so more or less."
"Are you quite certain that it wasn't after 9.30?"
"Yes, Sir. Quite. It wouldn't take me all that time to get to Barnsley Street from the post office. There's another thing, too, sir. Brown - the man with the coffee-stall - hadn't taken up his pitch when I passed."
"But Brown stated when questioned that he had seen you shortly after he arrived at 9.30!"
"Said he saw me last night?" repeated Mather.
"Yes, quite definitely."
"Well, sir," said Mather, in a voice of slowly kindling suspicion, "I don't know what little game he thinks he's playing, but if he says he saw me last night he's made a mistake. If I may say what I think, sir -'
"Yes, go on!"
"Well, Sir, I suppose for a matter of six or seven days he has seen me, for I've been down Barnsley Street, sometimes at one time, and sometimes at another, each evening, but always after 9.30. Only, as it so happens, I took Barnsley Street and Letchley Gardens early last night. It seems to me Brown was making that up, sir, kind of banking on what he thought probably did happen. If I may say so."