"Looking up the Dago?" asked he with a grin. He jerked a dirty thumb toward the stairs.
Ashton-Kirk nodded; the man took the wooden pipe from his mouth, blew out a jet of strong-smelling smoke and said:
"I knowed he'd put a knife or something into somebody, some day. These people with bad tempers ought to be chained up short."
"Do you know him well?" inquired the investigator.
"Been acquainted with him ever since he's been living here—and that's going on three years."
"Did he have many visitors, do you know?"
The man in the cloth cap pulled at his pipe reflectively.
"I can't just say," he replied. "But I've been thinking—" he paused here and examined both young men questioningly. Then he asked: "You're detectives, ain't you?"
"Something of that sort," replied Ashton-Kirk.
The man grinned at this.