In the second place Adair might have upset the tin and trodden in its contents when he went to get his bicycle in order to fetch the doctor for the suffering MacPhee. This was the more probable of the two contingencies, for it would have been dark in the shed when Adair went into it.
Note two: Interview Adair as to whether he found, on returning to the house, that there was paint on his shoes.
Things were moving.
He resolved to take Adair first. He could get the groundsman's address from him.
Passing by the trees under whose shade Mike and Psmith and Dunster had watched the match on the previous day, he came upon the Head of his house in a deck chair reading a book. A summer Sunday afternoon is the time for reading in deck chairs.
"Oh, Adair," he said. "No, don't get up. I merely wished to ask you if you found any paint on your shoes when you returned to the house last night."
"Paint, sir?" Adair was plainly puzzled. His book had been interesting, and had driven the Sammy incident out of his head.
"I see somebody has spilled some paint on the floor of the bicycle shed. You did not do that, I suppose, when you went to fetch your bicycle?"
"No, sir."