LITMIR.BIZ

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the inner door, but leaving the oak open, I lit the gas and fell to pacing the room.

      What a wonderful episode it had been! How the whole aspect of the world had been changed in a moment by Thorndyke's revelation! At another time, curiosity would have led me to endeavour to trace back the train of reasoning by which the subtle brain of my teacher had attained this astonishing conclusion. But now my own happiness held exclusive possession of my thoughts. The image of Ruth filled the field of my mental vision. I saw her again as I had seen her in the cab with her sweet, pensive face and downcast eyes; I felt again the touch of her soft cheek and the parting kiss by the gate, so frank and simple, so intimate and final.

      I must have waited quite a long time, though the golden minutes sped unreckoned, for when my two colleagues arrived they tendered needless apologies.

      "And I suppose," said Thorndyke, "you have been wondering what I wanted you for."

      I had not, as a matter of fact, given the matter a moment's consideration.

      "We are going to call on Mr. Jellicoe," Thorndyke explained. "There is something behind this affair, and until I have ascertained what it is, the case is not complete from my point of view."

      "Wouldn't it have done as well to-morrow?" I asked.

      "It might; and then it might not. There is an old saying as to catching a weasel asleep. Mr. Jellicoe is a somewhat wide-awake person, and I think it best to introduce him to Inspector Badger at the earliest possible moment."

      "The meeting of a weasel and a badger suggests a sporting interview," remarked Jervis. "But you don't expect Jellicoe to give himself away, do you?"

      "He can hardly do that, seeing that there is nothing to give away. But I think he may make a statement. There were some exceptional circumstances, I feel sure."

      "How long have you known that the body was in the Museum?" I asked.

      "About thirty or forty seconds longer than you have, I should say."

      "Do you mean," I exclaimed, "that you didn't know until the negative was developed?"

      "My dear fellow," he replied, "do you suppose that, if I had had certain knowledge where the body was, I should have allowed that noble girl to go on dragging out a lingering agony of suspense that I could have cut short in a moment? Or that I should have made these humbugging pretences of scientific experiments if a more dignified course had been open to me?"

      "As to the experiments," said Jervis, "Norbury could hardly have refused if you had taken him into your confidence."

      "Indeed he could, and probably would. My 'confidence' would have involved a charge of murder against a highly respectable gentleman who was well known to him. He would probably have referred me to the police, and then what could I have done? I had plenty of suspicions, but not a single solid fact."

      Our discussion was here interrupted by hurried footsteps on the stairs and a thundering rat-tat on our knocker.

      As Jervis opened the door, Inspector Badger burst into the room in a highly excited state.

      "What is all this, Doctor Thorndyke?" he asked. "I see you've sworn an information against Mr. Jellicoe, and I have a warrant to arrest him; but before anything is done I think it right to tell you that we have more evidence than is generally known pointing to quite a different quarter."

      "Derived from Mr. Jellicoe's information," said Thorndyke. "But the fact is that I have just examined and identified the body at the British Museum, where it was deposited by Mr. Jellicoe. I don't say that he murdered John Bellingham—though that is what the appearances suggest—but I do say that he will have to account for his secret disposal of the body."

      Inspector Badger was thunderstruck. Also he was visibly annoyed. The salt which Mr. Jellicoe had so adroitly sprinkled on the constabulary tail appeared to develop irritating properties, for when Thorndyke had given him a brief outline of the facts he stuck his hands in his pockets and exclaimed gloomily:

      "Well, I'm hanged! And to think of all the time and trouble I've spent on those damned bones! I suppose they were just a plant?"

      "Don't let us disparage them," said Thorndyke. "They have played a useful part. They represent the inevitable mistake that every criminal makes sooner or later. The murderer will always do a little too much. If he would only lie low and let well alone, the detective might whistle for a clue. But it is time we were starting."

      "Are we all going?" asked the inspector, looking at me in particular with no very gracious recognition.

      "We will all come with you," said Thorndyke; "but you will, naturally, make the arrest in the way that seems best to you."

      "It's a regular procession," grumbled the inspector; but he made no more definite objection, and we started forth on our quest.

      The distance from the Temple to Lincoln's Inn is not great. In five minutes we were at the gateway in Chancery Lane, and a couple of minutes later saw us gathered round the threshold of the stately old house in New Square.

      "Seems to be a light in the first floor front," said Badger. "You'd better move away before I ring the bell."

      But the precaution was unnecessary. As the inspector advanced to the bell-pull a head was thrust out of the open window immediately above the street door.

      "Who are you?" inquired the owner of the head in a voice which I recognised as that of Mr. Jellicoe.

      "I am Inspector Badger, of the Criminal Investigation Department. I wish to see Mr. Arthur Jellicoe."

      "Then look at me. I am Mr. Arthur Jellicoe."

      "I hold a warrant for your arrest, Mr. Jellicoe. You are charged with the murder of Mr. John Bellingham, whose body has just been discovered in the British Museum."

      "By whom?"

      "By Doctor Thorndyke."

      "Indeed," said Mr. Jellicoe. "Is he here?"

      "Yes."

      "Ha! And you wish to arrest me, I presume?"

      "Yes. That is what I am here for."

      "Well, I will agree to surrender myself subject to certain conditions."

      "I can't make any conditions, Mr. Jellicoe."

      "No. I will make them, and you will accept them. Otherwise you will not arrest me."

      "It's no use for you to talk like that," said Badger. "If you don't let me in I shall have to break in. And I may as well tell you," he added mendaciously, "that the house is surrounded."

      "You may accept my assurance," Mr. Jellicoe replied calmly, "that you will not arrest me if you do not accept my conditions."

      "Well, what are your conditions?" demanded Badger impatiently.

      "I desire to make a statement," said Mr. Jellicoe.

      "You can do that, but I must caution you that anything you say may be used in evidence against you."

      "Naturally. But I wish to make the statement in the presence of Doctor Thorndyke, and I desire to hear a statement from him of the method of investigation by which he discovered the whereabouts of the body. That is to say, if he is willing."

      "If you mean that we should mutually enlighten one another, I am very willing indeed," said Thorndyke.

      "Very well. Then my conditions, Inspector, are that I shall hear Doctor Thorndyke's statement and that I shall be permitted to make a statement myself, and that until those statements are completed, with any necessary interrogation and discussion, I shall remain at liberty and shall suffer no molestation or interference of any kind. And I agree that, on the conclusion of the said proceedings, I will submit without resistance to any course that you may adopt."

      "I can't agree to that," said Badger.

      "Can't you?" said Mr. Jellicoe coldly; and, after a pause, he added:

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