"He would hardly have walked into it on purpose," said the Doctor.
"It is at least highly improbable. Well, here we have another man who comes running to the theatre wet through—also, we will assume, from an immersion in the fish-pond. We will suppose that he plunged into it to the rescue and having brought his burden safe to shore, ran to the theatre to inform me of the accident. At once we are confronted with half a dozen serious difficulties. To begin with, why, having asked for me, did he disappear?"
"Press-gang," the Doctor suggested.
"Granted. But why, having an urgent message to deliver, did he proceed to take a ticket for the gallery in company with two sailors, apparently strangers to him? Again, this explanation does not even touch the crucial question, which is—How came our friend to disappear?"
The Doctor shook his head.
"On the other hand," Mr. Basket continued, "if we take the darker view, that this man had entered the fish-pond not for purposes of rescue, but—dreadful thought—to hold the victim under water, why should he have exposed himself to detection by coming to the theatre? Why, in fine, should he desire to communicate at all with me?"
"Perhaps," suggested Mrs. Basket, who had been listening while she knitted, "his conscience pricked him."
"My dear Maria!" began her husband testily. But at this moment the house rang with an alarm upon the front-door bell.
The poor lady stood up fluttering, white in the face.
"You must answer it, Elihu! I couldn't, not if you was to offer me twice the reward at this moment—and him standing there, perhaps, or his ghost, like Peter out of prison!"