"There isn't much to tell. I got into the private bar at the end of a passage and, just as I got in, the landlord was sayin' how Mr. Leigh, the little gentleman over the way, with the hump on him, had been in that day, and had told him wonderful things he was going to do with the skeleton of Moses, or somethin' of that kind, which had been found at the bottom of the Nile, or somewhere. This mention of a little man with a hump made me take an interest, for I remembered what you told me last evenin'. And, as the landlord was talking quite free and open for all to hear, I asked for a tuppenny smoke and a small lemon--for I'm off the drink----" "Go on, or you'll drive me to it," said Timmons impatiently. "I couldn't understand what the landlord was sayin' about the Prince being as dry as snuff, but anyway, after a minute he said: 'There he is, winding up his wonderful clock,' and all the men in the bar looked up, and I did too, and there was the little man with the hump on his back pulling at something back and forward like the rods in a railway signal-box." "You saw him?" "Yes, and all the men in the bar saw him." "How many men were there in the private bar?" "Half-a-dozen or eight." "You were drunk last night, Stamer." "I was as sober as I am now." "What o'clock was it then?" "Well, I cannot say exactly, between twelve and half-past." "How long did you stay in that public-house?" "Until closing time." "And how soon after you went in did you see the little man working the handle, or whatever it was?" "A minute after I went in. As I went in the landlord was speakin', and before he finished what he had to say he pointed, and I looked up and saw Mr. Leigh." "The next time you dog me, and tell a lie to get out of blame, tell a good lie." "Mr. Timmons, what I tell you is as true as that there's daylight at noon." "Tell a better lie next time, Stamer," said Timmons, shaking his minatory finger at the other. "Strike me dead if it isn't true." "Why, the man, Mr. Leigh, did not go back into the house at all last night. He and I went for a walk, and were more than half-a-mile away when a quarter past twelve struck." "Has your Mr. Leigh a twin brother?" "Pooh! as though a twin brother would have a hump! Stamer, I don't know what your object is, but you are lying to me." "Then the man's neighbours does not know him. All the men in the bar, except two or three, knew the hump-backed Leigh, and they saw the man's face plain enough, for at twenty minutes past twelve by the clock in the bar he stopped working at the handle and turned round and nodded to the landlord, who nodded back and waved his hand and said, 'There he his a noddin' at me now.' The publican is a chatty man. And then Mr. Leigh nodded back again, and after that turned round and went on working at the handle again."