The man had evidently an object in view, so I thought I would humour him.
“I have taken great interest in the subject,” I said, “and have studied it in books and newspapers and in the courts of justice, and have also derived a good deal of information from persons who have come in contact with criminals.”
“Ah! you know nothing of it from personal experience?”
“How do you mean?”
“You never, for instance, saw a murderer?”
“Only in the dock.”
“Would you like to see a murderer?”
“Well,” I replied, with a nervous laugh, “‘like’ is hardly the word. If I happened to come across such an individual, I should feel interested, no doubt.”
“No doubt,” this strangest of strangers echoed, adding, after a pause, “and you never saw a murder done?”
“Never.”