"So I hear. And what do you think of the murder?"
Lucy had brought some work in with her. Seating herself by the fire, she began busying herself with it.
"Do you think it was a murder?"
"I should think it was a murder. What else could it have been?"
"The woman might have fallen out of the train by accident."
"Accident? A lot of that!" I have told Lucy over and over again that, in the presence of ladies, Adolphus Keeley is sometimes brusque to the verge of rudeness. "Do you think that if there had been any accident about it, the fellow who was with her wouldn't have given the alarm? He knew better."
I had been setting out the chessmen on the board, and turned to Keeley with a pawn in either hand.
"Which hand will you have?"
"Left."
The white pawn was in the left hand. We sat down to play. Still he continued to prose. "Fred Courtney wanted to bet that they wouldn't have the fellow in a month. I should be almost inclined to take short odds that they'll have him within four-and-twenty hours."