He inhabited rooms at Balham or Brixton, I forget which. He never swore, he never drank, he never smoked, or looked at the female population of the British Islands with a view to matrimony or the reverse. The man was without a visible vice, and he had several visible virtues. It was this fact that made the problem of him so interesting and made the attentive student of him pause to ask, "What makes him so beastly?"
Moriarty, having watered the horses and seen to them with the scrupulous attention of a nurse, called Andy to him.
"Andy," said Moriarty, "did you see the chap that's come to collar the horses?"
"Seen him?" said Andy, for once loquacious. "Faith, I was near pitchforkin' him as he was standin' there, afther you'd left him. Sure, wasn't I listenin' to him----"
"Shut your head," said Moriarty, "and listen to your betthers. Go fetch me a big truss of straw."
Andy, obedient as a dog, went off for the straw, and returned with it on his back.
Moriarty opened the door of the loose-box next to The Cat's.
"Stick it here in the corner," said Moriarty, indicating the corner in question.
Andy flung the truss of straw in the corner.
He took a five-shilling-piece from his pocket, and, leading Andy to the side of the bungalow, gave him the coin, gave him some instructions, and pointed in the direction of the village.
At half-past eight that evening Mr. Piper, seated in the kitchen finishing his supper, heard Andy's voice. He was colloguing in the scullery with Mrs. Driscoll, and what he said was distinctly audible in the kitchen.
Said Andy, "Is the bailiff chap still at his supper?"
"Faith, and he is," replied Mrs. Driscoll.
"Then kape him there for another half-hour, for Moriarty's goin' to play him a trick and get the horses away unbeknownst to him."
He rose from the table, used the back of his hand as a serviette, strolled to the kitchen door, and contemplated the evening. The sky was cloudless, and a full moon was rising over the hills. From the stables came occasionally the stamping of horse-hoofs. He strolled around to the yard, where he met Moriarty, who was lighting a stable lantern.
"Oh, faith, it's fine enough. Andy, where were your blitherin' skylights when you stuck this wick in the stable lanthern?"