He grunted. "Impression's good!"
"That there's some sort of a misunderstanding that ought to be cleared up."
"'Impression's' damned good!" he muttered again. "I like 'impression.'"
"Well, never mind the word. You reminded me a few minutes ago that we were all there that morning, and so I take it that we're all interested. Can't we talk it quietly over?"
I don't think I ever saw eyes capable of staring for so long without a blink. Old Dadley had been right when he had said, "He stares you down, he does." I awaited his pleasure.
"No, that won't wash either," he said curtly at last. "You came here for a purpose. Specially. I won't say the place isn't free to anybody, but it would be bad for trade if everybody stood behind a paper looking for twenty minutes at a glass of beer. I don't think there's any need to be plainer than that."
"Very well, have it that way if you like," I returned. "You tell me the whole of Chelsea is interested in this Case. Well, as I was there when it happened it's natural that I should be interested too."
"Hah!... Well, all I have to say to that is that nobody would have guessed it at the time," he answered.
"Indeed? Why not?"
"Hah! Why not? It is a bit of a puzzle, isn't it? But suppose we put it this way: Here's two men come tumbling on a man's roof. Bit of a bump they make, don't they? Say a thousand people watching, eh? It isn't a thing that happens every day exactly, you'd think? Very well. Now where were all of you? Finishing your breakfast? 'Interested,' you say. Well, you'd expect the master of the house to be a bit interested. But where was he? Where were all the rest of you, except him that went up on the roof? You seem to me more interested now than you did then. That's the first point that strikes me."