“You’ve boasted about your abilities as a trained investigator,” she said. “Very well, then, investigate. That’s the business of a reporter. Gibeon is your laboratory. You’ll find it somewhat different to get at facts hidden in human brains than to discover the hidden properties of a chemical or to classify some rare plant or animal.... I haven’t a trained mind. I wasn’t an infant prodigy. I haven’t spent my lifetime in educating my brain out of all usefulness, but I can see there’s something wrong here. Now, Mr. Pell, take your trained faculties out and discover what it is. There’s investigation worth while.”
“Are you sure,” said Evan, “you will have the courage to publish what I find?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “There’s no use talking about that,” she said, “until you find something.”
“What,” he said, provocatively, “do you want me to investigate first?”
“The one thing that cries out for investigation. Find out why nothing is done to discover what happened to Sheriff Churchill. Find out why he disappeared and who made him disappear and what has become of him. Fetch me the answers to these questions and I’ll take back all I’ve said—and apologize.”
“Has it—er—occurred to you that perhaps Sheriff Churchill disappeared because he—investigated too much?”
“Are you afraid?” she asked.
He wrinkled his brows and peered at her through his spectacles, and then, nonplused her by answering, calmly, “I rather fancy I am. Yes, now I come to give consideration to my emotions, I find I am apprehensive.”
“Then,” she said, with a shrug, “we will forget about it.”
“You are trying,” he said, “to make me feel ashamed because I am afraid. It is useless. I shall not be ashamed. It is natural I should be afraid. Self-preservation dictates fear. The emotion of fear was implanted in man and animals as a—er—safety device to prevent them from incurring dangers. No, I am not in the least ashamed.... Fortunately, reason has been provided as well as fear, and, consequently, if reason counsels a course of action which fear would veto, it is only natural that intelligence should govern.... Reason should always control emotion. Therefore, apprehensive as I am of unpleasant consequences to myself, I shall proceed with the investigation as indicated.” His tone was final. There was no boasting in his statement, only the logical presentation of a fact. He was afraid, but his reason indicated to him that it was worth his while to subject himself to the hazards of the situation. Therefore he subordinated fear.