Page 104 - the-thirty-nine-steps

My day as roadman excited him a bit. He made me de-
scribe the two fellows in the car very closely, and seemed to
be raking back in his memory. He grew merry again when
he heard of the fate of that ass jopley.
But the old man in the moorland house solemnized him.
Again I had to describe every detail of his appearance.
‘Bland and bald-headed and hooded his eyes like a bird
... He sounds a sinister wild-fowl! And you dynamited his
hermitage, after he had saved you from the police. Spirited
piece of work, that!’ Presently I reached the end of my wan-
derings. He got up slowly, and looked down at me from the
hearth-rug.
‘You may dismiss the police from your mind,’ he said.
‘You’re in no danger from the law of this land.’
‘Great Scot!’ I cried. ‘Have they got the murderer?’
‘No. But for the last fortnight they have dropped you
from the list of possibles.’
‘Why?’ I asked in amazement.
‘Principally because I received a letter from Scudder. I
knew something of the man, and he did several jobs for me.
He was half crank, half genius, but he was wholly honest.
The trouble about him was his partiality for playing a lone
hand. That made him pretty well useless in any Secret Ser-
vice a pity, for he had uncommon gifts. I think he was the
bravest man in the world, for he was always shivering with
fright, and yet nothing would choke him off. I had a letter
from him on the 31st of May.’
‘But he had been dead a week by then.’
‘The letter was written and posted on the 23rd. He ev-

104 The Thirty-Nine Steps