B1+ level
Normal pace
It's a dialogue between an inspector (A) and Baxter (B).
Thanks a lot!
A: Are you Edith Baxter?
B: Yes, I am.
A: You are Mrs Straker’s maidservant?
B: Yes.
A: Tell me, what exactly happened last night?
B: By 9 o’clock I left the house with Ned’s supper.
A: Who is Ned?
B: Ned Hunter. He is one of the three stable boys. He was on guard that night. The two other boys had their meal in the house.
A: I see. What food did you bring him?
B: It was a dish of curried mutton. We all had curried mutton for supper that night.
A: It was already dark at 9 o’clock, I presume.
B: Pitch dark, but I had a lantern.
A: And what exactly happened next?
B: I saw a man approaching me. He called me to stop.
A: Can you describe the man?
B: He was young, about 30, I should think, and gentlemanlike. He was dressed in a grey tweed suit. He wore gaiters and carried a heavy stick with a knob to it. He looked nervous.
A: Had you ever seen the man before?
B: No never.
A: And what did he do? Did he say something to you?
B: He asked me if he was near King’s Pyland, and when I said he was, he asked me to give what looked like a piece of paper he took from his waistcoat pocket to the stable boy.
A: And what did you do?
B: I refused, but when I came at the stable window through which I pass the dish to the guard, the man was behind me. I gave Ned the dish and looking behind me I saw the corner of a little paper packet protruding from the man’s left hand.
A: A paper packet? Any idea what I could have contained?
B: No idea.
A: We’ll see to that later. So you didn’t hear what the man said to the boys?
B: No, I didn’t, but when I walked back I saw him leaning through the window.
A: That will be all for now. I will need to see you again.
