“I don't know,” said the inspector as they walked on, “Mr. Tony seems to have made up his mind and I should fancy he could be pretty pig-headed when he likes. I sent the girl a letter from Scotland Yard covering one of Thompson's, so that she should not hear of this arrest first from the papers.”
“Poor girl! But I think she has been dreading this for some time. Probably anything, even this certainty, will be better than the state of fear in which she has been living of late.”
“Probably,” the inspector assented. Then he went on after a minute's pause, “Thompson's is the most ingenious case I have ever come across of a deliberately planned course of dishonesty, with a second identity so that Thompson of Bechcombes' could disappear utterly and Mr. Hoyle of Rose Cottage, Burford, could just take up his simple country life, paint his pictures and potter about the village where he was already known.”
“Yes. His fatal mistake was made in putting in his daughter as Mr. Bechcombe's secretary,” John Steadman said thoughtfully. “It trebled his chances of discovery and I can't really see his motive. I suppose he thought she could assist his schemes in some way.”
“Yes, I fancy he did get some information from her,” the inspector assented. “Though I am certain the girl herself did not know that Thompson and Hoyle were one and the same until after Mr. Bechcombe's death. Then I imagine he disclosed his identity to her and that accounts for the state of tension in which she has been living. His second mistake was leaving her photograph in his room. That gave the clue to his identity.”
“Yes. Well, as you know, inspector, it is the mistakes that criminals make that provide you and me with our living,” Steadman said with a chuckle. “And now Mr. Thompson—Hoyle, will disappear for some considerable time from society. And the intelligent public will probably clamour for his trial for Mr. Bechcombe's murder. For a large section of it has already believed him guilty.”
“And not without reason,” the inspector said gravely. “Appearances have been, and are, terribly against Thompson. Mrs. Carnthwacke's evidence may save him if——”
“Yes. If,” Steadman prompted.
“If she is able to give it,” the inspector concluded. “But Mrs. Carnthwacke is not recovering from the injuries she received in that terrible assault upon her so quickly as was expected. In fact, the latest editions of the evening papers, after having devoted all their available space to Thompson's career and arrest, will have a paragraph in the stop press news recording Mrs. Carnthwacke's death.”
“What!” Steadman glanced sharply at the inspector's impassive face. Then a faint smile dawned upon his own. “So that, with that of Thompson's arrest, the Yellow Dog will feel pretty safe.”