Costock nodded.
“And now explain how you came to be in at the death, please.”
“It was this way. As I was going through the village I came on a boatman. It’s a hot day, so I thought I’d go on the river for a row.”
“And perhaps spy out the land, seeing that the grounds are easily accessible from the river-bank?”
“Well, I don’t say yes and I don’t say no. It might have come in handy.”
“And you took a pistol with you on your outing?”
Costock had his explanation ready.
“I thought as perhaps I’d run across Shandon and we might get talking. He’s a violent-tempered swine—leastways, he was so. And ’t seemed to me best to have a quietener in my pocket; for I’d have stood no chance at all against him, man to man. He could ha’ licked me with one hand.”
“When did you leave the boat-house in the village?”
“ ’Bout three o’clock, as near as I can remember. But the boatman could tell you. He took the time for hirin’ the boat.”