“But if, as you say, you knew from the first that the Major was guilty, why, in God’s name, didn’t you tell me, and save me this week of anxiety?”
“Don’t be ingenuous, old man,” returned Vance. “If I had accused the Major at the beginning, you’d have had me arrested for scandalum magnatum and criminal libel. It was only by deceivin’ you every minute about the Major’s guilt, and drawing a whole school of red herrings across the trail, that I was able to get you to accept the fact even to-day. And yet, not once did I actu’lly lie to you. I was constantly throwing out suggestions, and pointing to significant facts, in the hope that you’d see the light for yourself; but you ignored all my intimations, or else misinterpreted them, with the most irritatin’ perversity.”
Markham was silent a moment.
“I see what you mean. But why did you keep setting up these straw men and then knocking them over?”
“You were bound, body and soul, to circumst’ntial evidence,” Vance pointed out. “It was only by letting you see that it led you nowhere that I was able to foist the Major on you. There was no evidence against him,—he naturally saw to that. No one even regarded him as a possibility: fratricide has been held as inconceivable—a lusus naturæ—since the days of Cain. Even with all my finessing you fought every inch of the way, objectin’ to this and that, and doing everything imag’nable to thwart my humble efforts. . . . Admit, like a good fellow, that, had it not been for my assiduousness, the Major would never have been suspected.”
Markham nodded slowly.
“And yet, there are some things I don’t understand even now. Why, for instance, should he have objected so strenuously to my arresting the Captain?”
Vance wagged his head.
“How deuced obvious you are! Never attempt a crime, my Markham,—you’d be instantly apprehended. I say, can’t you see how much more impregnable the Major’s position would be if he showed no int’rest in your arrests—if, indeed, he appeared actu’lly to protest against your incarc’ration of a victim. Could he, by any other means, have elim’nated so completely all possible suspicion against himself? Moreover, he knew very well that nothing he could say would swerve you from your course. You’re so noble, don’t y’ know.”
“But he did give me the impression once or twice that he thought Miss St. Clair was guilty.”