The police-officer shook his head at this inference.
“You do not agree with me?” said Mr. Mitchell.
“No, not as to the complicity of the guard.”
“Well, but granting that complicity, we may attribute the crime to the natives who haunt the Murray. Without him the blacks could never have opened a swing-bridge; they know nothing of its mechanism.”
“Exactly so,” said the police-inspector.
“Well,” added Mr. Mitchell, “we have the evidence of a boatman whose boat passed Camden Bridge at 10:40 P. M., that the bridge was properly shut after he passed.”
“True.”
“Well, after that I cannot see any doubt as to the complicity of the guard.”
The police-officer shook his head gently, but continuously.
“Then you don’t attribute the crime to the natives?”