17When Miss Brown had left the room Frank Abbott met his Inspector's eye and smiled faintly.
Lamb said, "Well?"
"Oh, she's lying--quite strenuously, I think, but not all the time. Some of it came easy, and some of it came hard. There's an eel under the stone, as they say in France."
Lamb looked suspicious.
"This isn't France, and you'd do better to keep your mind on your job. Or if you want to play at proverbs, here's a good old English one--'Fine words butter no parsnips'. We'll be getting along to Prior's End to see what Madoc's got to say. Of course they may have fixed up their tale so that it will hang together, but there's quite a chance they haven't. What with the inquest going off as smooth as butter, and the verdict what it was, they wouldn't know they'd been seen in the lane,
