‘I see what you mean,’ said Jonathan. ‘And I’ll ask Will North about the snow.’

‘I think I had better do that.’

‘All right, then. And you want to talk to young Emming?’

‘Above all things, and the sooner the better.’

Will was preparing his dinner. He had opened a tin of stewed steak and a tin of baked beans, and had tossed the lot into the broth made from the carcase of a fowl. He had peeled a small cauldron-full of potatoes, and this was supported on iron rods on half the kitchen fire whilst the stew was to occupy the other half when the potatoes were three-quarters done.

Will welcomed the visitor and got out another large plate. Mrs Bradley accepted an old and comfortable armchair beside the fire, and gazed round the neat but very full room with interest. Nets, snares, the plumage of a jay for making fishermen’s flies, a large kitchen table, a heavy curtain on rings to keep draughts out when the wind was in the east, a sink and draining board, several more chairs and a small table, a broad, high settee-bed used as a dump for guns, the gamekeeper’s bag, and some books and papers, formed some of the furniture of a fair-sized stone-flagged room.

A window looked out over green and steeply undulating meadows to the rise of a hill, and between the window and the fireplace wall was the armchair occupied by Mrs Bradley. Beyond the armchair a heap of firewood, (logs and kindling), had been neatly stacked underneath two shelves which held cooking utensils.

In the opposite wall was the opening into Will’s larder, and next to that was his gun-cupboard in which five more guns reposed. A step led down to his sitting-room, used by him in the winter as a bedroom and furnished with family furniture, a bedstead and some photographs.

‘What can you do for me, Will?’ asked Mrs Bradley, when she had taken her fill of the ship-shape arrangements of the living room. ‘You can tell me, if you please, about the heap of snow on the badger-watching platform in Groaning Spinney.’

The tall gamekeeper studied her and took his time about replying. When he did speak, he said slowly:

‘There was more snow on that platform than there ought to have been, ma’am. That’s all I know about it.’

‘Did you try to find out why it was there?’

‘No. But of course I know now.’

‘Oh?’

‘Yes. I know now. That snow was covering up something that wasn’t intended to be seen.’

‘What something, Will?’

‘Well, maybe I shouldn’t say, ma’am. Least said the better, that’s my meaning.’

‘And you didn’t make any investigation at all?’