Chapter XIV.
A Chase, ending with a Surprise
“Now then,” said the policeman, falling back on a formula in face of an unexpected situation. “What’s all this about?”
There can be no doubt that, on most occasions, the sense of humour is a handicap in life. It implies introspection, and he who introspects is commonly lost. But laughter is, in great part, the child of innocence, and it is doubtful if anything could have exculpated the two amateur detectives from the charge of being criminals so speedily as the complete break-down of Gordon’s gravity when the question was asked.
“What are you doing in these rooms?” asked the policeman, less suspicious but by no means more friendly.
“Well, you see,” said Reeves, “they’re my rooms.”
“I ought to warn you,” the policeman pointed out, “that this may involve you in a serious charge. We have reason to think that a murderer has been hiding in that passage there. Say nothing if you don’t want it to be used as evidence.” And he took out the inevitable note-book which is the policeman’s substitute for a thunderbolt.
“I’m sorry, officer,” said Gordon, “but you must see that we’ve been going round one another in circles. You’re looking for a murderer—let me make a rash guess, and put it to you that it’s Brotherhood’s murderer you’re looking for? Well, we’re doing exactly the same. It seems that, by a mere chance, he’s been taking refuge in a passage which communicates with this room which is rented by Mr. Reeves here. And instead of finding the murderer, we’ve found one another.”
“Very irregular, gentlemen. You know as well as I do that if you’ve any information in your possession which might lead to the conviction of the criminal, it’s your duty to communicate it to the police. Of course, I’m very sorry if I gave you gentlemen a fright, but you’ve got to look at it this way, Whose business is it to see justice done, yours or mine? You see, if it hadn’t been for you gentlemen giving the alarm, not meaning to, I’m not saying you meant to, but if you gentlemen hadn’t given the alarm, I might have got this chap bottled up properly in the passage there; and now how am I to know where he is? That’s the way you’ve got to look at it.”
“But the coroner’s jury brought in a verdict of suicide,” objected Reeves.
“Ah, that may be; but you see it’s this way, the Force isn’t tied down by what the coroner’s jury says, and if the Force has its suspicions, then it acts accordingly; and if anybody else has their suspicions, then it’s their duty to communicate them to the police, d’you see? And then the police can act accordingly.”