Which was it?
Signor Malipizzo dismissed as untenable the hypothesis of a clandestine
withdrawal from local creditors. By way of clearing up the last vestige
of doubt, however, and also for the sake of appearances (seeing that a
wise magistrate is supposed to take nothing for granted) he called for
depositions for the sailors and fishermen. It was a superfluous piece
of work, a pure formality; he knew beforehand what they would say. They
always said the same thing. They said it. Interrogated on oath they
declared, one and all, that no person answering to the description of
Muhlen had appeared on the beach for a long time; not for the last
eight months and twelve days, to be quite accurate; much less had such
a one engaged a vessel. The jovial but conservative sea-folk never
varied their utterance on those many solemn occasions when a foreigner,
for the purpose of evaporating, paid in advance for the hire of a boat,
or was supposed to have done so. Albeit even ignorant people attached
no significance to this statement, it went for what it was worth as
cumulative evidence.
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