“Oh? They were meeting each other at an inn. Which was first at the rendezvous?”
“The woman was first. Stop a bit! We are getting to it now.” He produced from his pocket the written memorandum of Arnold’s proceedings at Craig Fernie, which he had taken down from Arnold’s own lips. “I’ve got a bit of note here,” he went on. “Perhaps you’d like to have a look at it?”
Sir Patrick took the note—read it rapidly through to himself—then re-read it, sentence by sentence, to Geoffrey; using it as a text to speak from, in making further inquiries.
“‘He asked for her by the name of his wife, at the door,’” read Sir Patrick. “Meaning, I presume, the door of the inn? Had the lady previously given herself out as a married woman to the people of the inn?”
“Yes.”
“How long had she been at the inn before the gentleman joined her?”
“Only an hour or so.”
“Did she give a name?”
“I can’t be quite sure—I should say not.”
“Did the gentleman give a name?”