`Wait a bit. You're wrong there,' put in Sir William. `Give the boy his due. Whatever he was, he wasn't a coward. His upsets never came because he feared any sort of violence.!
'But he said…'
`That isn't the point, you see,' Dr Fell said, patiently. `To publish anything of the sort couldn't have done any harm. They might say they'd found a vital clue, or that there had been a threat. The first would only warn their victim. The second would have been more publicity, which the hat-fellow wanted in the-first place; look at the way he acts. It would have done no harm, and assuredly it would have helped young Driscoll's job.'
'Suppose he'd actually found out who the man was, though?'
`Why, the newspaper would have communicated with the police,' and Driscoll would have got the credit. Do you seriously think anybody would have been afraid, at the time, of a person who seemed to be a mere genial practical joker?
No, no. You're letting the hat on the corpse run away with your own sense of humour. I'm willing to agree with Sir William's statement the boy wasn't a coward but what was it he did fear? There's a tip. Think it over.'
`I have something to say to you in a moment,' the chief inspector told him. `But, for the moment, let's continue. Have you any suggestions, General?'
General Mason had been smoking glumly. He took the cigar out of his mouth and shook his head.
`None whatever. Except that it's fairly obvious now he was stabbed and not shot with that bolt.'
`Mr Rampole?' Hadley saw that the American was ill at ease, and raised his eyebrows encouragingly. `Any ideas?'