“Ah-pity. You are quite sure he is dead?”
“Too right!”
“Do you know who it is?”
“Mr. Grumman,” answered Bisker.
“Mr. Grumman, eh! Oh! Bring me a stick about five feet in length.”
Fred found a branch on the lower side of the road and snapped off a stick of the required length. With its point, Mr. Bonaparte moved aside the intervening brambles so that he could see clearly the dead man’s face and the clothes he was wearing. Then with the stick he pushed and pulled the vegetation back to hide the body.
Chapter Two
Bisker’s Unusual Morning
MISS JADE was taking breakfast in a corner of the dining room.
The dining room at Wideview Chalet was Miss Jade’s pride, for she had designed it with the purpose of making as much as possible of the magnificent view. Across the entire front were wide panes of glass so that guests whilst eating might admire one of the finest views in all the State of Victoria.
The maid who brought Miss Jade’s bacon and eggs said to her:
“Bisker wants to see you, marm.”
“Bisker wants to see me?” Miss Jade exclaimed. “Did you say that Bisker wants to see me?”
“Yes, marm,” replied the maid, adding pertly: “That is what I said, marm.”
“Tell Bisker that I am breakfasting.”
The girl departed silently over the thick pile. Miss Jade’s finely pencilled brows drew a fraction closer together. There appeared between them two short vertical lines, lines which had caused MissJade a good deal of concern, and which she could vanquish only by keeping her brows raised. She heard the maid’s voice from beyond the dining room’s well-oiled swing doors, and almost choked at the sight of Bisker himself advancing towards her table.
“Bisker!”Miss Jade almost shouted.
Bisker continued to advance, to advance in defiance of Miss Jade’s terrible eyes which ordinarily would have petrified him into immobility. He was smiling faintly, a softly sardonic smile, and when he arrived at her table twiddling his old felt hat in his grubby hands, he said: