‘Yes, I suppose you would. I don’t think he could have been there. I’m sure I’d have seen him if he had been there. As a matter of fact,’ Kitty said, ‘I wasn’t looking much in that direction. I was looking, actually, at the upper reaches to see …’ She glanced at George Lacklander. ‘Well, to see if I could spot Mr Phinn,’ she said.

In the silence that followed, Alleyn was quite certain that the Lacklander wariness had been screwed up to its highest tension. All three had made slight movements that were instantly checked.

‘Mr Danberry-Phinn?’ Alleyn said. ‘And did you see him?’

‘Not then. No. He must have either gone home or moved beyond the upper bend.’

‘Fishing?’

‘Yes.’

‘Poaching!’ George Lacklander ejaculated. ‘Yes, by God, poaching!’

There were subdued ejaculations from Mark and his grandmother.

‘Indeed?’ Alleyn asked. ‘What makes you think so?’

‘We saw him. No, Mama, I insist on saying so. We saw him from the second tee. He rents the upper reaches above the bridge from me, by God, and Maurice Cartarette rents – I’m sorry, Kitty – rented the lower. And there – damnedest thing you ever saw – there he was on his own ground on the right bank above the bridge, casting above the bridge and letting the stream carry his cast under the bridge and below it into Cartarette’s waters.’

Lady Lacklander gave a short bark of laughter. George cast an incredulous and scandalized glance at her. Mark said, ‘Honestly! How he dared!’

‘Most blackguardly thing I ever saw,’ George continued. ‘Deliberate. And the cast, damme, was carried over that hole above the punt where the Old ’Un lurks. I saw it with my own eyes! Didn’t I, Kitty? Fellow like that deserves no consideration at all. None,’ he repeated with a violence that made Alleyn prick up his ears and seemed to rebound (to his embarrassment) upon George himself.

‘When did this nefarious bit of trickery occur?’ Alleyn asked.

‘I don’t know when.’

‘When did you begin your round?’

‘At six-thirty. No!’ shouted George in a hurry and turning purple. ‘No! Later. About seven.’

‘It wouldn’t be later than seven-fifteen then, when you reached the second tee?’

‘About then, I dare say.’

‘Would you say so, Mrs Cartarette?’

Kitty said: ‘I should think, about then.’

‘Did Mr Phinn see you?’

‘Not he. Too damned taken up with his poaching,’ said George.

‘Why didn’t you tackle him?’ Lady Lacklander inquired.

‘I would have for tuppence, Mama, but Kitty thought better not. We walked away,’ George said virtuously, ‘in disgust.’

‘I saw you walking away,’ said Lady Lacklander, ‘but from where I was you didn’t look particularly disgusted, George.’

Kitty opened her mouth and shut it again and George remained empurpled.

‘Of course,’ Alleyn said, ‘you were sketching, Lady Lacklander, weren’t you? Whereabouts?’

‘In a hollow about the length of this room below the bridge on the left bank.’