He did not. He said: “Now, you were with Sir Richard when he discovered this very shocking crime, were you not, young man?”
“Well, not precisely,” said Pen.
“Oh? How is that?”
“I was, and I wasn’t,” Pen explained, with an earnestness which robbed the words of flippancy. “I didn’t see the body.”
“No? Just tell me exactly what happened. No need to feel any alarm, you know! If you walked out with your cousin, how came you to have separated?”
“Well, sir, there was an owl,” confided Pen unblushingly.
“Come, come! An owl?”
“Yes: my cousin said that too.”
“Said what?”
“Come, come! He is not interested in bird-life.”