He thought he was "setting his bird-trap" in the stubble-field; and he see a partridge, and watched where it scudded to; but he wasn't nigh the mill the whole time.
"Did you see anything of Lord Hartledon when he was in the skiff ?" "I never saw him," he sobbed.

"I wasn't nigh the mill at all, and never saw him nor the skiff." "What time did you get back to the mill ?" asked the coroner.
He didn't know what time it was; his master and missis had come home.
This was true, Mr.Floyd said.

They had been back some little time before Ripper showed himself.

The first intimation he received of that truant's presence was when he drew his attention to the loose skiff.
"How came you to see the skiff ?" sharply asked the coroner.
Ripper spoke up with trembling lips.

He was waiting outside after he came up, and afraid to go in lest his master should beat him for not taking the sacks, which went clean out of his mind, they did, and then he saw the little boat; upon which he called out and told his master.
"And it was also you who first saw the body in the water," observed the coroner, regarding the reluctant witness curiously.