“How do you know he had?”
“Because he told it me over again—the one he said he had been telling at the police station, Master Johnny. I was standing outside the inn yard while you were all in at lunch, and Standish came by as bold as brass, Brazer’s dog, Rover, leashed to his hand.”
“I suppose it is Brazer’s dog?”
“Oh, it’s Brazer’s dog, that’un be,” said Giles, with a deep amount of scorn; “I know him well enough.”
“Then how can it be Don? And we could not bring home another man’s dog.”
Giles paused. His eyes had a far-off look in them, as if seeking for something they could not find.
“Master Johnny,” he said, “I can’t rightly grasp things. All the way home I’ve been trying to put two and two together, I am trying at it still, and I can’t do it anyhow. Don’t it seem odd to you, sir, that Standish should have got Brazer’s dog, Rover, into his hands just at the very time we are suspecting he has got Don into ’em?”
I did not know. I had not thought about it.
“He has that dog of Brazer’s as a blind. A blind, and nothing else, sir. He has captured our dog, safe and sure, and is keeping him hid up somewhere till the first storm of the search is over, when he’ll be able to dispose of him safely.”