Armadale's face showed a certain satisfaction at finding the chief constable in agreement with him on his point.
“Now we'll assume that they had him overpowered. If it was a case of simple robbery, the easiest thing to do would be to tie his hands together and fetter his ankles, and then leave him on the floor while they looted the place. But they tied him in a chair—which isn't so easy to do, after all. They must have had some reason for that, or they wouldn't have gone to the extra trouble.”
“Even if you tie a man's hands and feet, he can always roll over and over and make himself a nuisance,” the inspector suggested. “If you tie him in a chair you have him fast.”
“Quite true,” Sir Clinton admitted. “But would you go to the extra trouble yourself, inspector, if the case happened to be as I've stated it? No? Neither should I. It seems as if there might be a likelier solution. Ever visit a sick friend?”
“Yes,” said Armadale, obviously puzzled by the question.
“Did you ever notice, then, that it's easier to talk to him if he's sitting up in bed and not lying down?”
“There's something in that,” the inspector admitted. “I've never paid any attention to it; but, now you mention it, sir, I believe you're right. One gets more out of a talk with a man when he's not lying down in bed. I suppose one's unaccustomed to it.”
“Or else that when he's sitting up you can follow the play of expression on his face,” Sir Clinton supplied, as an alternative.
Wendover evidently saw the drift of the chief constable's remark.
“So you think he was tied up that way, Clinton, because they wanted to talk to him; and they wanted to see his face clearly while they talked?”