CHAPTER XIV
PAUL IS APPREHENDED FOR MURDER
"Paul Stepaside, I apprehend you for the murder of Mr. Edward Wilson!"
The words stunned him, and for the moment he scarcely realised their purport—but only for a moment. His mind asserted itself, and the meaning of what he had just heard came to him in all its grim reality.
"I have to inform you," said the sergeant of the police, "that anything that you may say to me may be used against you as evidence hereafter."
Paul looked at the man's face with a kind of curiosity. For the moment he seemed to be watching some drama of events with which he had nothing to do. The three policemen were of the ordinary well-fed and somewhat self-satisfied class of men. They acted upon order, without much intelligence. Paul hesitated a moment, and began to reflect deeply. He called to mind all the events of the last few hours, and his heart was filled with a great terror. That which, a little while before, had seemed only a dark shadow now assumed tangible shape.
"Very well, I will go with you," he said quietly. And then, again reflecting a moment, he continued: "But first of all I would like to speak to my mother."
"No," said the sergeant. "I can't allow you to go out of my sight."
"Think what you're saying, my man!" said Paul sharply.