Page 34 - the-thirty-nine-steps
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had been cheap at the price, for he seemed to have occupied
         the police for the better part of the day. In the latest news I
         found a further instalment of the story. The milkman had
         been released, I read, and the true criminal, about whose
         identity the police were reticent, was believed to have got
         away from London by one of the northern lines. There was
         a short note about me as the owner of the flat. I guessed
         the police had stuck that in, as a clumsy contrivance to per-
         suade me that I was unsuspected.
            There was nothing else in the paper, nothing about for-
         eign politics or Karolides, or the things that had interested
         Scudder. I laid it down, and found that we were approaching
         the station at which I had got out yesterday. The potato-
         digging  station-master  had  been  gingered  up  into  some
         activity, for the west-going train was waiting to let us pass,
         and from it had descended three men who were asking him
         questions. I supposed that they were the local police, who
         had been stirred up by Scotland Yard, and had traced me as
         far as this one-horse siding. Sitting well back in the shadow
         I watched them carefully. One of them had a book, and took
         down notes. The old potato-digger seemed to have turned
         peevish, but the child who had collected my ticket was talk-
         ing volubly. All the party looked out across the moor where
         the white road departed. I hoped they were going to take up
         my tracks there.
            As  we  moved  away  from  that  station  my  companion
         woke up. He fixed me with a wandering glance, kicked his
         dog viciously, and inquired where he was. Clearly he was
         very drunk. ‘That’s what comes o’ bein’ a teetotaller,’ he ob-

         34                                The Thirty-Nine Steps
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