“Indeed! Then you have no witness whatever to produce as to the purchase?” I cried, after a long whistle.
“None.”
“Did you not speak of it to anybody?”
“Not a soul but yourself that I mind of.”
“Well, all I can say is that your case looks a bad one,” I said at last, as I turned to leave him. “By the by, though, what about the chain? Did you buy that from him too?”
My reason for asking was, that the chain was a neck one, not an albert, and, of course, had not been identified by the widow of Anderson.
“No, I had the chain; I had taken it in payment of an account; but he wanted me to buy a chain, too, now that I remember.”
“What kind of a chain? Did you see it?”
“No; I said I did not need it; but I would look at the watch. He wanted a pound for the chain, and eight for the watch. I got it for £5, 10s., and then he went on the spree for a fortnight.”
“A whole fortnight? Surely some one will be able to recall that,” I quickly interposed, half inclined to believe that Burge was not at least the greater liar of the two. “His daughter will surely remember it?”