Hector was ready for this.
"Yes, I can, sir. You remember when I settled that whiskey story and—well, dealt with Randall, the man who started it?"
A flicker of a smile played over the Inspector's face.
"Yes, I do," he replied.
"Well, it comes to me now that that was started to discredit me—perhaps to make you think I wasn't to be trusted, sir, and get you to take me off the whiskey-runners altogether. If Welland is what I think he is, that's just what he'd do. Now, Welland was the only man except Randall who knew that whiskey had been shipped to me. If he had power over Randall, he could make him circulate those yarns and take the blame later. Finding that the scheme wouldn't work, he next thinks of putting me out for good by getting Wild Horse to shoot me. I'm certain if we get Randall here now, sir, and tell him we know part of the truth and want the rest, he'll give it to us. Being in Welland's power, as I believe, he'll welcome a chance to knife him. Besides, he's a coward, and will think more of saving his own skin than of anything else."
The Inspector was slowly but surely marshalling the facts and was almost finally convinced.
"That's an idea, too," he declared. "But Welland's always been a good friend of ours, Adair. He's—ah—respected everywhere and——"
"He's made a fortune out of that sham respectability, sir," Hector said. "His friendship was carefully planned from the time we first came in—I'm sure of that now. He was probably whiskey-trading as a side-line when we arrived and, instead of really welcoming us, he hated to see us come. After that he could only carry on with safety by doing it secretly, while he played the friendly respectable on the surface. That tune went down well with the decent people in the country; and how were newcomers like ourselves to know him for what he really was? The only man who could possibly succeed at the head of the organization I've described, sir, was a man we all considered respectable—I saw that when I first became suspicious that such an organization actually existed. Welland is thought to be one of the most respectable in the country, as you've said—and tonight what Wild Horse has said leaves me absolutely convinced."
The Inspector looked Hector in the eyes.
"I believe you're right!" he said. "Send out for Randall."