"That sounds like the beginning of
business."
"Only the beginning, I'm afraid. This morning I interview my last old
man--to find of course he wasn't the fellow I was after. I interviewed
him on the usual subject--ancient traditions of the island, and from that
we passed on to the latest tradition, the legend of the mysterious
visitor last August. He told me all about it, with many embellishments.
However he was shrewd enough not to believe all he heard, and to show me
what absurd stories are put about, he informed me that his own small
grand-daughter, aged six, had declared that she had seen the mysterious
visitor, only she described him as having a white beard and funny
spectacles. I asked him exactly where this phenomenon had been observed,
and by Jingo, Jack, it was at the very place I met him; only when she saw
him he had left the road and was hurrying down to the sea. She described
him as running, which finally demolished her reputation for truthfulness,
for as her grandfather observed, men of his age don't run. But that was
my friend right enough!"
"Heading for the sea?"
"For the beach, I take it. You see you can pop over the edge almost
anywhere along that shore, and get out of sight among the rocks in a
moment. I presume he squatted down there, pocketed his spectacles and
beard, took off his disreputable overcoat, and either hid it or possibly
pinned up the skirts and put it on under his other coat, and walked off
looking like--well, that's the rub, what did he look like then? And
that's just where I seem no forrader.
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