“I’ll prove it, then. Just give me time.”
For a moment the Chief sat wrapped in deep thought. Then of a sudden he said:
“You have a rather unusual method of picking suspects.”
“In what way?”
“When the police have a criminal to catch, a crime to clear up, they go over the list of criminals who work at such crimes, then they check up on those persons, possibly shadowing them for days. But you—you simply go to a fire and pick a man who seems particularly interested in the fire. You say to yourself: ‘He might be the man.’ Then you start shadowing him.”
“But if you see him at three or four fires? Doesn’t that look bad?” Johnny asked.
“Not necessarily. Some persons are just natural cranks when it comes to fires. They’d get out of bed at midnight to go to one. For instance, take that pink-eyed fellow you’ve been telling about. It’s a well known fact that those pink-eyed people, albinos they are called, are like owls; they see best at night. The bright light of day appears to blind them, so they like to prowl around at night. This fellow may be that sort and may have taken up with the running down of fires as an innocent hobby.”
“That’s right enough,” said Johnny, “but on the other hand some clever gang of criminals may have noticed his night prowling and may have induced him to join them in setting blazes. And besides, these fires are different, aren’t they? Did anyone ever go about the task of setting fire to all the city’s property before?”
“No.”
“Or any other city’s?”