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“Mr Eddison?” she drawled “He’s a good old man Never a bit of trouble like certain of his shipmates I could name”

“Is he in?”

“Mr Eddison sleeps late, being as hoorks at night”

“Would you mind if I waited?” Bell asked with a shted his blue eyes

The landlady brushed a wisp of gray hair fro you a cup of coffee”

“Don’t trouble yourself”

“No trouble, Mr Bell You’re in the South now My entleman sit in my parlor without a cup of coffee”

Fifteenthe truth too far, “This is the finest coffee I have had since my mother took me to a pastry shop in Vienna, Austria, when I was only knee-high to a grasshopper”

“Well, you knohat I’ve a mind to do? I’ll put on a fresh pot and ask Mr Eddison if he’d like to have a cup with you”

John Eddison would have been even taller than Bell, the detective saw, had age not bent his back He had big hands and long arms that must have been powerful in his day, a shock of white hair, pale runny eyes, the enorging jowls

Bell extended his hand “I’ator”

“You don’t say,” Eddison grinned, and Bell saw that the slow htly ht have when I was younger How can I help you, sonny?”

“I was speaking with Lance Corporal Black and Private Little of the Marine guard, and-”

“You knoe said about the Marines in the

Navy?” Eddison interrupted