Though I had long won these facts from Billy, I had never known him to play his game so openly before. But when I mentioned the thing to Solon, thinking to beguile him from his trouble, I found him more interested than I had thought he could be; for Solon knew Billy as well as I did,
"Did Billy follow you here?" he asked. "Perhaps he has a clew."
"A clew to what?"
"A clew to Potts. Billy volunteered to work up the Potts case, and I told him to go ahead."
"Was that fair, Solon, to pit a sleuth as relentless as Billy against poor Potts?"
"All's fair in love and war."
"Is it really war?"
"You ask Westley Keyts if he thinks it's love."
I think I noticed for the first time then that the Potts affair was etching lines into Solon's face.
"Of course it's war," he went on. "You know the fix I'm in. I had the plan to get Potts out. It was a good plan, too. The more I think of it the better I like it. With any man in the world but Potts that plan would have been a stroke of genius. But I don't mind telling you that this thing has robbed me of sleep for three months. Potts has got me talking to myself. I wake up talking of him, out of the little sleep I do get. I'll tell you the fact—if Potts is here six weeks longer, and let to finish this canvas, my influence in Slocum County is gone. I might as well give up and move on to another town myself, where my dreadful secret is unknown."