"Swim well?"
"Yes."
"Don't you ever qualify a statement?"
"Not unless it needs it."
"The kid could swim like an eel. There's the matter of ears, too. Yours look ordinary enough, and his must have been ordinary too or I should remember. Anyone who has worked in a life-class notices ears. But I must see what photographs of him exist. Front ones wouldn't matter, but a real close-up of an ear might be a give-away. I think I must take a trip to Clare and do some prospecting."
"Don't bother on my account."
Loding was silent for a moment. Then he said, reasonably: "Tell me, do you believe my story at all?"
"Your story?"
"Do you believe that I am who I say I am, and that I come from a village called Clare, where there is someone who is practically your double? Do you believe that? Or do you think that this is just a way of getting you to come home with me?"
"No, I didn't think it was that. I believe your story."