"
"Obviously," I agreed. "And I also agree that it's for the experts to
decide whether a bomb could be slipped into a paper parcel of butter or a
large cheese, or anything else they bought; and for you simply to find
out exactly what was bought and who sold it."
"A paper parcel of butter and a large cheese," he repeated. "Did you
happen to see any of those things being sold yourself?"
"I happened to pass some blue jackets who had just bought them."
He made me tell him exactly the circumstances of my seeing the men and
my passing Peter and Jock previously; precisely in fact as I have told it
in this account. He thought for a few moments in silence after I had
finished and then asked me if I knew definitely of any other people who
had sold anything to the sailors.
"I happen to know for certain of Dr. Rendall and his cousin Mr. Philip
Rendall--or rather Mr. Philip Rendall's farmer, but from all I saw and
all I heard I fancy the difficulty will be to find a house that did not
sell something."
He nodded thoughtfully.
"That's exactly the difficulty," he said, and then he rose and held out
his hand. "Goodnight, Mr. Merton, I'm much obliged to you and I'll
promise you to make an excuse for looking you up very soon again and
letting you know how I am getting on. By the way, you had better tell the
doctor I was much interested in your account of how the explosion
happened.
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