“It isn't as if I was really needed, you know. The Superintendent's idea is, as you say, quite absurd.”
The Inspector gravely nodded.
“You don't think for a moment,” continued Cameron, “there is any need—any real need I mean—for me to—” Cameron's voice died away.
The Inspector hesitated and cleared his throat. “Well—of course, we are desperately short-handed, you know. Every man is overworked. Every reserve has to be closely patroled. Every trail ought to be watched. Runners are coming in every day. We ought to have a thousand men instead of five hundred, this very minute. Of course one can never tell. The chances are this will all blow over.”
“Certainly,” said Cameron. “We've heard these rumors for the past year.”
“Of course,” agreed the Inspector cheerfully.
“But if it does not,” asked Mandy, suddenly facing the Inspector, “what then?”
“If it does not?”
“If it does not?” she insisted.
The Inspector appeared to turn the matter over in his mind.