“Not a soul come near me save a car or two. Not a soul that’d speak for me. I ain’t got no luck, I ’aven’t. Never ’ad!” The little man’s voice was bitter. Fayre bent over him, struck by a sudden idea. “Nothing turned up the lane to the farm while you were lying there, did it?” he asked. A gleam of suspicion crept into the tramp’s furtive eyes. He distrusted everybody on principle, especially people who asked abrupt questions, but he had not the courage or the intelligence to lie. “There was one car,” he admitted cautiously. “They wouldn’t ’ave seen me, though. It was dark and I was out of range of the lights.” Grey took up the interrogation eagerly, speaking softly so that his words should not reach the ears of the policeman sitting in the chair by the window. “Can you remember what the car was like? Was it too dark to see who was in it?” The little man looked at him with weary scorn. He was tired of being on the defensive and wanted, above all things, to be left alone. “Pitch-dark, it was, nearly. I couldn’t ’ave recognized the Prince of Wales in all ’is feathers.” “You’ve no idea of the colour of the car, or how many people were in it?” persisted Grey. “You can’t see no colours in the dark. There was two people in it, though, unless one was the shofer. It come close to me, takin’ the turn, and I see the two heads. I did think one was a woman, but I don’t know why. It was pretty dark.” “It went up to the farm, you say?” “I don’t know where it went. How should I? It went up the lane, like I told you.” “What time was this?” “Just before I went along the road to the Lodge. About an hour after I lay down at the corner.” “You are sure of the time, more or less?” The tramp groaned. “I don’t carry no watch, mister. Anyway, they couldn’t ’ave seen me, so it don’t prove nothing, either way.” Fayre hitched up his chair nearer to the bed, his friendly gaze on the man’s face. “I’ve been on trek myself without a watch,” he said cheerily, “and had to go by the skies. It’s a gift in itself and I’ll wager you’re as good a hand as any at calculating time. What time would you put it at, now?” The man observed him shrewdly for a moment. Then: “Seein’ as you’re the first as ’as spoke to me friendlylike since I’ve been ’ere I’ll tell you as near as may be. Gettin’ on for half-past six, I should say it was.” “And more likely right than a dozen watches. Can you remember if it was a big car?” The tramp nodded. “Goin’ a lick of a pace, too. And what’s more, I see it again, goin’ back. And it was fair scorchin’ then.” “Where was that?” “On the road, just as I was comin’ away from that there Lodge.” “Much later?” “Twenty minutes or perhaps twenty-five, I’d put it.” Fayre’s little bit of flattery had done its work and the man was now anxious to show off his ability to reckon time. “It was going fast, you say?”