CHAPTER NINETEENI suspect Colonel Primrose was as surprised as I was to see Jim Gould and Sergeant Buck sitting on the front steps of my house so deep in conversation that they didn’t even see us coming until we were almost up to them. When they did Buck jumped to his feet, giving the Colonel a sharp probing glance—unless I was mistaken—no doubt to see whether I’d proposed to him. Then he came to an abrupt attention.
“Mr. Gould’s got an idea, sir,” he said stiffly.
“Really?” said Colonel Primrose. “What is it?”
“It’s about the foreigner, sir.”
“Yes?”
Colonel Primrose gave me a glance.
“Yes, sir. It’s his idea that the foreigner knew the missus in Georgia.”
He looked over at Jim out of one eye.
Jim grinned. There was something decidedly grim, just the same, about his lean set jaw an
