`Good God, no!… You mean you have caught..!'
`Arbor, the murder had no concern with your manuscript. You can forget it. You'll feel like forgetting your fears, too, in the morning. The murderer is'dead. Any inquest on Driscoll will be a private and perfunctory thing; it'll be kept out of the press because it can't serve any useful purpose. So you needn't worry. Go to a hotel and get some sleep; And, if you hold your tongue, I'll promise to hold mine.
'But the man trying to get at me to-night…!'
`He was one of my own constables, to scare you into telling what you know. Run along, man! You never were in any danger in the world.'
`But!’
`Run along, man! Do you want Sir William to walk in here on you and make trouble?'
It was the most effective argument he could have used. Arbor did not even inquire too closely into the identity of the murderer. So long as the murderer had no designs on
him, his aura conveyed that he was averse to the gruesome details of a vulgar murder. When Dr Fell and Rampole walked with him to the front door they found Hadley, who had shortly dismissed the two constables, in the front hall.
`I don't think,' the doctor said, `that we need detain Mr Arbor any longer. I have his story, and I'm sorry to say it doesn't help us. Good-night, Mr Arbor.'
`I shall walk,'- said Arbor with cool dignity, `to a hotel. Good-night, gentlemen.'