“Maybe it’d be as well if we went there and bespoke a bed, if they’ll take us in,” said Ashton-Kirk.
Scanlon seemed surprised.
“I guess they’ve got room,” said he. “But I had it in my mind you were going to Schwartzberg.”
“I will pay it a visit, if I’m permitted, when I’ve had a chance to see something of its surroundings. Your story, you see, shows plainly that, whatever the nature of Campe’s danger, it comes from the outside.”
Scanlon seemed struck by this; then he nodded and said:
“I guess that’s right. But don’t you think a good chance to pump Campe for some inside information would be better than anything else?”
“In its proper place, perhaps. But I want to look over the outside, uninfluenced. Five minutes’ talk with a man in Campe’s state of mind might colour one’s thoughts to such an extent that it would be difficult to see anything except with his eyes.”
“That sounds sensible enough,” agreed Bat. “And if there’s anything in the world you don’t want to get doing, it’s seeing things as he sees them.”
They followed the narrow road for some distance, and then the big man turned off into a path which led through a stretch of farm land.
“This is a short cut,” said he. “I followed it frequently when I was out with the gun. It’ll bring us to a road a bit beyond this wood; and the road leads on to the inn.”