"Dr. Antrim, sir," said Sergeant Davis.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The Incredible Burglar
The first thing to be noted about Dr. Lawrence Antrim was, surprisingly, that he was not nearly so nervous or disturbed as he had been earlier that night. He was still excited, but that was a quality which he had not in his thirty years been able to control. It might have been a bad professional handicap to him, if it had not been for the quality-call it personality, or reassurance, or strength, or what you like-which came with him behind his awkwardness. It seemed to wake up the room, where even H.M.'s gigantic vitality was beginning to dim in the hour before dawn. It made me realize how drowsy I was myself.
Antrim, though his eyes were hollow and his brush of mahogany-coloured hair stood up like a goblin's, was almost sombrely genial. He had a cigarette in his hand, which he carried crooked, with the lighted end towards him as though he were shielding it. After running an appraising eye over us, he tumbled down into a chair, crossed his long lanky legs, and said:
"Going to go over it all again? Right you are. I don't mind. Got my story pat, thanks.- Here!" He looked at me. "I owe you an apology. When I saw you running away in that car to-night, and I thought it was Charters's car, I thought you were a crook-"
"That's not the only mistake that's been made to-night, son," said H.M. "You and your wife have been makin' a much bigger one."
"Probably," returned Antrim coolly. "We all do, at one time or another. Well?"
"And there we hear the note of defiance. Bah!" said H.M., opening his eyes. "You seem to be modellin' your manner after hers. No, no. Honestly, son, the manner don't sit well on you and it's not necessary. This isn't a court or third degree: it's a court of good news. I'm tryin' to tell you that we know all about your hideous suspicions of bein' haunted by Secret Service men in false whiskers. They're all rubbish. We're not after you. We never were. So get the bogies out of your mind and forget every suspicion while you answer my questions."
Antrim went a little red under his freckles.