(b) There was no actual identification of the scissors.
(c) If there was a box of carpet tacks in our car, neither Aggie nor I saw them.
(d) The fish pier had been notoriously rotten for years.
(e) We have paid for the repairs to the motorcycle, and so on.
(f) Doctor Parkinson is not permanently lamed, and we have replaced his lamps.
(g) Personally, knowing Tish’s detestation of cross-word puzzles, I believe the false clews were a joke on the part of others concerned.
(h) We did that night what the local police and the sheriff from Edgewater had entirely failed to do, and risked our lives in so doing. Most of the attack is purely jealousy of Letitia Carberry’s astute brain and dauntless physical courage.
I need say no more. As Tish observed to Charlie Sands the next day, when he came to see her, lifting herself painfully in her bed:
“I take no credit for following the clews; they were simplicity itself. And I shall pay all damages incurred. But who is to pay for this cracked rib and divers minor injuries, or replace poor Aggie’s teeth? Tell me that, and then get out and let me sleep. I’m an old woman.”
“Old!” said Charlie Sands. “Old! If you want to see an aged and a broken man, look at me! I shall have to put on a false mustache to get out of town.”