‘Exactly. Why should he give away the aspirin trick if it was the method he himself had used to get rid of his cousin? The inferences are either that he did not get rid of his cousin, but that he knew who did, or else that the aspirin method was not the method used, or else that Bill was not murdered at all but really did die accidentally or did commit suicide. In the last case, Tiny wanted to incriminate some innocent person.’

‘Well, what about the dog?’

‘I’m coming to the dog. On our way home from the Fullaloves’ bungalow we saw him. He was terrified of the gate at the top end of Groaning Spinney. Now I am not a subscriber to the belief that dogs can see ghosts. They may be able to do so, but until there is more evidence that they can, I prefer a rational explanation of some of their reactions. Well, Worry would not pass the gate until his owner came up. In Will North’s company the dog showed no more fear. Whatever was frightening about the gate lost its power in Will North’s presence. The obvious deduction is not that the dog saw the ghost, but that it had had some unpleasant experience which it connected with the gate when it was by itself. What that experience was we shall probably never know. Will North apparently had no knowledge of it, for he merely remarked that the dog was not usually silly, and passed on his way.’

‘You mean Tiny (we’ll say) may have kicked or thrashed the dog?’

‘We’ll not say Tiny, for a moment, if you don’t mind. It is much more likely to have been somebody else, but that someone I cannot (honestly) name. At least, not yet, because I haven’t named my proofs against him yet.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘I tell you that I cannot explain yet, but this is what followed. After the gamekeeper and his dog had passed, I happened to look back. A man was leaning over the gate. I deduced at the time that it was Bill Fullalove, whom I had not then met.’

‘Leaning over the gate where he was afterwards found dead? Rather a queer coincidence, what?’