‘By all means,’ said Oates firmly. ‘Bob Legge, sir, was sozzled. Quiet like, but muddled. Well, the man couldn’t find his way to his mouth with his pipe, not with any dash as you might say.’

‘He was still pretty handy with the darts, though,’ observed Fox.

‘So he was then, sir. But I reckon, sir, that’s second nature to the man, drunk or sober. He smelt something wonderful of tipple. And after I left, sir, he had two brandies. He must have been drunk.’

‘But sobered by shock?’ suggested Alleyn.

‘That’s what I reckoned, sir.’

‘Did you notice anything in Legge’s manner or in the manner of any of the others that led you to think the thing wasn’t an accident?’

Oates flexed his knees in the classic tradition and eased his collar.

‘Legge,’ he said, ‘was rather put about. Well, sir, that’s natural, he having seemingly just killed a man and got over a booze in one throw of a dart if you want to put it fanciful. Yes, he was proper put out, was Bob Legge. White as a bogey and trembling. Kept saying the deceased gentleman had taken tetanus. Now that,’ said Oates, ‘might of been a blind, but it looked genuine to me. That’s Legge. There wasn’t anything unusual in Abel Pomeroy. Worried, but there again, who isn’t with a fresh corpse on the premises? Young Will had his eye on Miss Dessy Moore. Natural again. She’s so pretty as a daisy and good as promised to Will. Staring at him, with eyes like saucers, and ready to swoon away. Kind of frightened. Bore up all right, till she’d told me how she give the deceased brandy, and then seemed, in a manner of speaking, to cave in to it, and went off with Will, scared-like and looking at him kind of bewildered. Will give me the clearest answers of the lot, sir. Kept his head, did Will.’

‘And the two friends?’

‘Two gentlemen, sir? Mr Parish looked scared and squeamish. Very put out, he was, and crying too, something surprising. Answered by fits and starts. Not himself at all. Mr Cubitt the straight out opposite. Very white and didn’t go near the body while I was there. Wouldn’t look at it, I noticed. But cool and collected, and answered very sensible. It was Mr Cubitt fetched the doctor. I got the idea he wanted to get out into the open air, like. Seemed to me, sir, that Mr Parish kind of let himself go and Mr Cubitt held himself in. Seemed to me that likely Mr Cubitt was the more upset.’

‘Yes,’ said Alleyn. ‘I see. Go on.’