“That is a very candid admission, Mr. Crewe.”
“As between you and me why shouldn’t there be candour?” said Crewe. “But what about my young friend Marsland? As it is a case for candour between you and me, we can’t have him present. For my part, I should prefer that he was present, but of course that is impossible from your point of view. You cannot go into your case against him in his presence.”
“Certainly not,” said Gillett decisively. “And before I produce my evidence to you, Mr. Crewe, I must have your word of honour not to tell a living soul, not to breathe a hint of it to any one, least of all to Captain Marsland. If you give me your word of honour I’ll be satisfied. That is the sort of reputation you have at Scotland Yard—if you want to know.”
“It is very good of you to talk that way,” replied Crewe. “I give you my word of honour not to speak to any one of what happens here, until you give me permission to do so. Marsland will wait outside in charge of Constable Heather. He will give you his word of honour not to attempt to escape.”
“Is that so?” asked Gillett of the young man.
Marsland nodded, and was handed over to Constable Heather’s care by Sergeant Westaway. When the sergeant returned he closed the door carefully.
“Lock it,” said Gillett. “And cover up the key-hole; we don’t want any one peeping through at what we’ve got here.”
“I like this,” said Crewe with a smile. “I feel that I am behind the scenes.”
“As regards Captain Marsland,” said Gillett after a pause, “I may as well tell you, Mr. Crewe, that I don’t want to deal more harshly with him than the situation demands—at this stage. Things may be very different a little later—it may be outside my power to show him any consideration. But I don’t want to detain him here—I don’t want to lock him up if it can be avoided. You know what talk there would be both here and in Staveley. I am thinking of his uncle, Sir George Granville. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. If he will give me his word of honour that he will not attempt to escape, and if you and his uncle will do the same, I’ll let him go back to Staveley in charge of Heather. There will be no difficulty in explaining Heather’s presence there to any friends of Sir George’s. What do you think of it?”
“Excellent!” said Crewe.