Then he went up to his bedroom and, putting on his dressing-gown, stood scowling into space with his head resting on his hand and his elbow on the mantelpiece in the attitude of the Great Detective thinking out a clue.
The bloodhound insisted on spoiling the picture by sitting up to beg.
******
That evening Mr. Croombe looked very weary when he came home.
"I went to a psycho-analyst," he said wearily, "about that—boy, you know, and he asked me questions for over an hour—all about my past life. He asked me if I'd ever had a shock connected with boys, and I remembered that squib that a boy let off just in front of me last November. He says that this hallucination may be caused by a subconscious fear. He gave me a lot of other cases of the same kind that he's treating. He says that if, when I see the boy, I try to remember that really he doesn't exist, I may get over it. I met cousin Agatha afterwards. She thinks it's a message—she wanted me to ask the Psychical Research Society to come down, but I think I'll wait till after the dinner-party anyway."
Mrs. Croombe clasped her hands.
"Oh, Jim!" she said, "it's all very wonderful, isn't it?"
******
William, after deep consideration, had decided not to take anyone into partnership. In the play there had been a faithful and unobtrusive friend of the Great Detective, who had merely asked questions and expressed admiration, but William, reviewing his circle of friends, could not think of anyone who would be content with this rôle. Therefore, he kept the whole thing to himself. He decided to bring off his great coup on the evening of the Croombe's dinner-party. He decided to go into the house and hide till the dinner had begun, and then go out and collect the stolen jewellery and convict the criminals. He expected vaguely to be summoned to Buckingham Palace to receive the V.C. after it. Anyway, his family would treat him a bit different—just!
He was in his bedroom, wearing his dressing-gown, and his faithful bloodhound was worrying the cord of it. He was sucking a lead pencil to represent the Great Detective's pipe. He had, at an earlier stage, experimented upon an actual pipe removed from the greenhouse where the gardener had left it for a moment. A very short experience of it had convinced him that a lead pencil would do just as well.