I told him. Yes; I blurted forth the truth, and made a clean breast of the whole matter.
But the instant I had done so I bitterly repented it.
I realised something which I had not before recognised.
I saw that, even though my dear wife were missing and in peril, I was a fool—an utter idiot—for having dared to breathe a word.
My injudicious statement had only rendered the enigma still more complicated than hitherto.
Chapter Twenty Three.
The Unexpected Happens.
The shrewd officer seated at the table with me, a pen in his hand, heard my narrative to the end, now and then making brief memoranda.