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“Pardon me,” he said, as coolly as might be, “that would be the very worst time to think of it. For, just consider: in the first place you will already be committed to your way of life, and secondly, if I know anything about you, you would be far too much flurried for any thought worth the name.”

There was a twinkle of frosty humour in his eye as he said this, and in the silence which followed I could hear him chuckling to himself, and tasting the words over again as though they were good wine. I sat fingering my pistol and waiting for him to speak again. When he did so, it was with another dry chuckle and a long puff of tobacco smoke.

“As you say, I know a deal too much. Shall I tell you how much?”

“Yes, you may if you’ll be quick about it.”

“Very well, then, I will. Do you mind passing the bottle? Thank you. I probably know not only too much, but a deal more than you guess. First let us take the case for the Crown. The jeweller is travelling by coach at night over the moors. He has one postillion only, Roger Tallis by name, and by character shady. The jeweller has money (he was a niggardly fool to take only one postillion), and carries a diamond of great, or rather of an enormous and notable value (he was a bigger fool to take this). In the dark morning two horses come galloping back, frightened and streaming with sweat. A search party goes out, finds the coach upset by the Four Holed Cross, the jeweller lying beside it with a couple of pistol bullets in him, and the money, the diamond, and Roger Tallis–nowhere. So much for the murdered man. Two or three days after, you, Gabriel Foot, by character also shady, and known to be a friend of Roger Tallis, are whispered to have a suspicious amount of money about you, also blood-stains on your coat. It further leaks out that you were travelling on the moors afoot on the night in question, and that your pistols are soiled with powder. Case for the Crown closes. Have I stated it correctly?”

I nodded; he took a sip or two at his wine, laid down his pipe as if the tobacco spoiled the taste of it, took another sip, and continued:–

“Case for the defence. That Roger Tallis has decamped, that no diamond has been found on you (or anywhere), and lastly that the bullets in the jeweller’s body do not fit your pistols, but came from a larger pair. Not very much of a case, perhaps, but this last is a strong point.”

“Well?” I asked, as he paused.

“Now then for the facts of the case. Would you oblige me by casting a look over there in the corner?”

“I see nothing but a pickaxe and shovel.”

“Ha! very good; ‘nothing but a pickaxe and shovel.’ Well, to resume: facts of the case–Roger Tallis murders the jeweller, and you murder Roger Tallis; after that, as you say, ‘nothing but a pickaxe and shovel.'”

And with this, as I am a living sinner, the rosy-faced old boy took up his flute and blew a stave or two of “Come, Lasses and Lads.”

“Did you dig him up?” I muttered hoarsely; and although deathly cold I could feel a drop of sweat trickling down my forehead and into my eye.

“What, before the trial? My good sir, you have a fair, a very fair, aptitude for crime, but believe me, you have much to learn both of legal etiquette and of a lawyer’s conscience.” And for the first time since I came in I saw something like indignation on his ruddy face.

“Now,” he continued, “I either know too much or not enough. Obviously I know enough for you to wish, and perhaps wisely, to kill me. The question is, whether I know enough to make it worth your while to spare me. I think I do; but that is for you to decide. If I put you to-night, and in half an hour’s time, in possession of property worth ten thousand pounds, will that content you?”