Between 7.30 and 8.30 every
morning except Sundays, Johnnie Butt made the round of the village of Chipping Cleghorn on
his bicycle, whistling vociferously through his teeth, and alighting at each house or
cottage to shove through the letterbox such morning papers as had been ordered by the
occupants of the house in question from Mr Totman,......
It is difficult to know quite where
to begin this story, but I have fixed my choice one a certain Wednesday at luncheon at the
Vicarage. The conversation, thought in the main irrelevant to the matter in hand, yet
contained on e or two suggestive incidents which influenced later developments.
