“Glad?” The doctor seemed a little dumfounded. “Why, pray?”
“Because having you all here in this room will make my task much easier.”
“Your task?”
The Phantom laughed easily. “You must surely know that it is my intention to hand you all over to the police?”
Bimble stared. Twice he opened his mouth, but no words came. The Phantom’s cool audacity seemed to have silenced his tongue.
“Are you crazy?” he asked at length.
“Never was saner in my life. It is my firm intention to turn every one of you over to the police. That’s why I am glad to see so many of you gathered in one room.”
He smiled as he spoke, but his heart was not in his smile. He was turning an audacious plan over in his mind, but he was not at all sure that he would have a chance to put it into execution. At his back he heard Helen’s quick, nervous intakes of breath, and he turned his head slightly.
“The Gray Phantom’s star has never yet set,” he whispered.