“I have been a fool, and yet—” Freyberger’s face unclouded a bit. “Is there another man in London who would have dug into his plans so deeply as I have done, connected the Lefarge case with the Gyde case and proved him indubitably the prime mover in both?
“A few days ago I knew nothing about this man whom Sir Anthony Gyde is supposed to have murdered. What do I know now? What have I discovered by the aid of my own intelligence? I know his name, his face, his mind in part. I know that he has not been murdered by Gyde; I am almost assured that he has murdered Gyde.
“I know that, under the name of Müller, he was not murdered by Lefarge; I am almost assured that he murdered Lefarge. I know that he is a homicidal maniac, whose pet method is strangulation.
“I know that he has about him Gyde’s jewellery, of which he is sure to try to dispose. I know that he has lived here; I know the address where he lived in Howland Street. But my most important knowledge is the knowledge of the statue and the bent of his mind.
“I have accumulated a mass of evidence that will damn him and crush him whenever I catch him, a mass of evidence that will clear two innocent men and expose to the world’s gaze the greatest and most complete villain that the world has ever beheld. Come, it is not so bad. I have committed a fault; I tried to match him at his own game of subterfuge, and that telegram was my answer. Alas! I am not so clever as he. But I have this in my favour, that I know much about him and he knows nothing about me.
“I have seen his hand, he has not seen mine.
“The question remains, what shall I do now? Remain here or go? Remain by all means, even if I have to remain till to-morrow morning. If he comes back I will seize him. If he does not come back, then I will know definitely that he has taken fright, that he suspects, and that he is, indeed, the murderer of Goldberg.”
CHAPTER XXXI
THERE was some coal in the coal-box and a bundle of wood in the grate. The weather was chilly and a fire would have been very acceptable, but the flicker of it when dusk was drawing on might have been observed from outside. So he determined to do without a fire.