“Now let’s get this a bit clearer. What did he actually say to the two men?”
“He said: ‘Wait a minute. Haven’t we . . .’ or it might have been ‘Aren’t you?’—or something like that.”
“As though he were going to say: ‘Haven’t we met before,’ or: ‘Aren’t you so and so?’ ” asked Macdonald.
“Yes. Just like that. I was surprised, because although he’d stared at them so queerly, I don’t think they’d taken any notice of him. And I don’t think any of them had been talking. When I came back into the compartment, the boy was staring at the floor, the older man was still drowsing over his paper and the spiv was sitting with his hands in his pockets, sucking his teeth, and looking quite revolting, and the writing body was putting her script together.”
“Then let’s have a little more about the fellow
