‘Near a clump of alders?’

‘You’re a sharpish observant fellow, it appears. Exactly there. I saw my son and Mrs Cartarette in peeps,’ Lady Lacklander said rather grimly, ‘through the alders.’

‘But you couldn’t see Mr Phinn poaching?’

‘I couldn’t,’ Lady Lacklander said, ‘but somebody else could and did.’

‘Who was that, I wonder?’

‘None other,’ said Lady Lacklander, ‘than poor Maurice Cartarette himself. He saw it and the devil of a row they had over it I may tell you.’

If the Lacklanders had been a different sort of people, Alleyn thought, they would have more clearly betrayed the emotion that he suspected had visited them all. It was, he felt sure, from one or two slight manifestations, one of relief rather than surprise on Mark’s part and of both elements on his father’s. Rose looked troubled and Kitty merely stared. It was, surprisingly, Nurse Kettle who made the first comment.

‘That old fish,’ she said. ‘Such a lot of fuss!’

Alleyn looked at her and liked what he saw. ‘I’ll talk to her first,’ he thought, ‘when I get round to solo interviews.’

He said: ‘How do you know, Lady Lacklander, that they had this row?’

‘A. because I heard ‘em and B. because Maurice came straight to me when they parted company. That’s how, my dear man.’

‘What happened, exactly?’

‘I gathered that Maurice Cartarette came down intending to try the evening rise when I’d done with him. He came out of his own spinney and saw Occy Phinn up to no good down by the bridge. Maurice crept up behind him. He caught Occy redhanded, having just landed the Old ’Un. They didn’t see me,’ Lady Lacklander went on, ‘because I was down in my hollow on the other bank. Upon my soul, I doubt if they’d have bridled their tongues if they had. They sounded as if they’d come to blows. I heard them tramping about on the bridge. I was debating whether I should rise up like some rather oversized deity and settle them when Occy bawled out that Maurice could have his so-and-so fish and Maurice said he wouldn’t be seen dead with it.’ A look of absolute horror appeared for one second in Lady Lacklander’s eyes. It was as if they had all shouted at her: ‘But he was seen dead with it, you know.’ She made a sharp movement with her hands and hurried on. ‘There was a thump, as if someone had thrown something wet and heavy on the ground. Maurice said he’d make a county business of it and Occy said if he did he, Occy, would have Maurice’s dog empounded for chasing his, Occy’s, cats. On that note they parted. Maurice came fuming over the hillock and saw me. Occy, as far as I know, stormed back up the hill to Jacob’s Cottage.’