“Ah! then you are observant, Mr Kemball,” he exclaimed, with a slight grin. “Yes, I am in danger—grave danger at this moment; and how to escape I know not.”
“Escape from what?”
“From arrest.”
“Is that young-looking man a police-officer?” I asked, much surprised.
“Yes; he’s older than he looks. I ought never to have dared to go to Totnes.”
“Why not Totnes?” I asked.
“I was lying low—for a certain reason, Mr Kemball. All of us have to wash in dirty water sometimes, you know,” he smiled grimly. “You are an honest man, no doubt—I too was, once.”
“And now the police are in search of you—eh?”
I asked. So my estimate of the man was not very far wrong.
He nodded slowly in the affirmative.