“No!” answered Spargo with emphasis. “I don’t! And I think we’ve got a good deal to do before we find out who did.”
Spargo purposely let the Marbury case drop out of his mind during his journey to town. He ate a hearty lunch in the train and talked with his neighbours; it was a relief to let his mind and attention turn to something else than the theme which had occupied it unceasingly for so many days. But at Reading the newspaper boys were shouting the news of the arrest of a Member of Parliament, and Spargo, glancing out of the window, caught sight of a newspaper placard:
THE MARBURY MURDER CASE
ARREST OF MR. AYLMORE
He snatched a paper from a boy as the train moved out and, unfolding it, found a mere announcement in the space reserved for stop-press news:
“Mr. Stephen Aylmore, M.P., was arrested at two o’clock this afternoon, on his way to the House of Commons, on a charge of being concerned in the murder of John Marbury in Middle Temple Lane on the night of June 21st last. It is understood he will be brought up at Bow Street at ten o’clock tomorrow morning.”
Spargo hurried to New Scotland Yard as soon as he reached Paddington. He met Rathbury coming away from his room. At sight of him, the detective turned back.
“Well, so there you are!” he said. “I suppose you’ve heard the news?”
Spargo nodded as he dropped into a chair.
“What led to it?” he asked abruptly. “There must have been something.”
“There was something,” he replied. “The thing—stick, bludgeon, whatever you like to call it, some foreign article—with which Marbury was struck down was found last night.”