“I am not Wilton,” I declared. “My name is Dudley—Giles Dudley.”
At this announcement Detective Coogan turned to the policeman. “Just step into Morris' room, Corson, and tell him I'm going up to the morgue.”
“Now,” he continued, as the policeman closed the door behind him, “this won't do, Wilton. We've had to overlook a good deal, of course, but you needn't think you can play us for suckers all the time.”
“But I tell you I'm not—” I began, when he interrupted me.
“You can't make that go here,” he said contemptuously. “And I'll tell you what, Wilton, I shall have to take you into custody if you don't come down to straight business. We don't want to chip in on the old man's play, of course, especially as we don't know what his game is.” Detective Coogan appeared to regret this admission that he was not omniscient, and went on hastily: “You know as well as we do that we don't want any fight with him. But I'll tell you right now that if you force a fight, we'll make it so warm for him that he'll have to throw you overboard to lighten ship.”
Here was a fine prospect conveyed by Detective Coogan's picturesque confusion of metaphors. If I persisted in claiming my own name and person I was to be clapped into jail, and charged with Heaven-knows-what crimes. If I took my friend's name, I was to invite the career of adventure of which I had just had a taste. And while this was flashing through my mind, I wondered idly who the “old man” could be. The note I had received was certainly in a lady's hand. But if the lady was Henry's employer, it was evident that he had dealt with the police as the representative of a man of power.
My decision was of necessity promptly taken.
“Oh, well, if that's the way you look at it, Coogan,” I said carelessly, “it's all right. I thought it was agreed that we weren't to know each other.”
This was a chance shot, but it hit.
“Yes, yes,” said the detective, “I remember. But, you see, this is serious business. Here's a murder on our hands, and from all I can learn it's on account of your confounded schemes. We've got to know where we stand, or there will be the Old Nick to pay. The papers will get hold of it, and then—well, you remember that shake-up we had three years ago.”