“No, sir. No,” continued the constable, turning his back to the wind, “if Macbeth hadn’t got jumpy and mucked things up I reckon they’d have got away with it. They seemed to be well-liked people in the district. Some kind of royalty. Aristocratic, like. Well, nobody suspects people of that class. That’s my point.”
Alleyn pulled his hat on more firmly and turned up the collar of his coat.
“Well,” he said, “I’ll go off duty.”
“Yes, sir. I beg pardon, sir. Don’t know what came over me speaking so freely, sir.”
“That’s all right,“ said Alleyn. ”You’ve put a number of ideas in my head. Good night to you.”
CHAPTER XVII
MR. FOX FINDS AN EFFIGY
The north wind that had come up during the night brought clouds. Before dawn these broke into teeming rain. At nine o’clock Roberta and Henry breakfasted in a room heavy with Victorian appointments. The windows were blind with rain and the room so dark that Henry turned on the lights.
“I don’t suppose that’s ever been done before except in a pea-soup fog,” he said cheerfully. “How did you sleep, Robin?”
“Not so badly,” said Roberta, “but for the wind in the chimney. It would drone out your name.”