It was the first direct question that he had ventured to put to the enigma, and the enigma ignored it.
“You say I was buried and you unburied me?” he pursued.
“Yes,” said Carpentaria enthusiastically, and he described the journeys, the disappearances and the reappearances, of the body of the enigma on the opening night.
“I suppose I should have died really, if I’d been left alone?” the enigma demanded of Rivers.
“Undoubtedly,” said Rivers. “Undoubtedly,” he repeated.
The enigma turned almost fiercely on Carpentaria.
“Then why, in the name of common sense, couldn’t you have left me alone?” he cried.
It was as though he owed Carpentaria a grudge which the most cruel ingenuity could not satisfy.
“I—I thought——” Carpentaria stammered, too surprised to be able to argue well.
“You thought you were doing a mighty clever thing,” snapped the enigma.