‘The future? You mean nobody could tell that the dart would puncture the finger?’

‘I do.’

‘Mr Legge,’ said Alleyn, ‘might have known, mightn’t he?’

‘He might,’ said Miss Darragh coolly, ‘but he didn’t. Mr Alleyn, I never took my eyes off ‘um from the time he took the darts till the time he wounded the poor fellow, and that was no time at all, for it passed in a flash. If it’s any help I’m ready to make a sworn statement, an affidavit, isn’t it? that Legge put nothing on the dart.’

‘I see,’ said Alleyn.

‘Even Mr Pomeroy who is set against Mr Legge, and Mr Parish too, will tell you he had no chance to infect the dart.’

Miss Darragh made a quick nervous movement with her hands, clasping them together and raising them to her chin.

‘I know very well,’ she said, ‘that there are people here will make things black for Mr Legge. You will do well to let ‘um alone. He’s a delicate man and this affair’s racking his nerves to pieces. Let ‘um alone, Mr Alleyn, and look elsewhere for your murderer, if there’s murder in ut.’

‘What’s your opinion of Legge?’ asked Alleyn abruptly.

‘Ah, he’s a common well-meaning little man with a hard life behind ‘um.’

‘You know something of him? That’s perfectly splendid. I’ve been trying to fit a background to him and I can’t.’

For the first time Miss Darragh hesitated, but only for a second. She said, ‘I’ve been here nearly three weeks and I’ve had time to draw my own conclusions about the man.’

‘No more than that?’

‘Ah, I know he’s had a hard time and that in the end he’s come into harbour. Let ‘um rest there, Mr Alleyn, for he’s no murderer.’

‘If he’s no murderer he has nothing to fear.’

‘You don’t know that. You don’t understand.’

‘I think perhaps we are beginning to understand. Miss Darragh, last night I asked Mr Legge if, as a matter of routine, he would let us take his fingerprints. He refused. Why do you suppose he did that?’

‘He’s distressed and frightened. He thinks you suspect ‘um.’

‘Then he should welcome my procedure that is likely to prove our suspicions groundless. He should rather urge us to take his prints than burst into a fit of hysterics when we ask for them.’

A faint line appeared between Miss Darragh’s eyes. Her brows were raised and the corners of her mouth turned down. She looked like a disgruntled baby.

‘I don’t say he’s not foolish,’ she said. ‘I only say he’s innocent of murder.’

‘There’s one explanation that sticks out a mile,’ Alleyn said. ‘Do you know the usual reason for withholding fingerprints?’

‘I do not.’

‘The knowledge that the police already have them.’

Miss Darragh said nothing.