Christopher Quarles: College Professor and Master DetectiveBrebner, Percy James
General
Christopher Quarles: College Professor and Master Detective
Brebner, Percy James
College teachers -- Fiction; Detective and mystery stories
I drove back to the Heron, and in the afternoon I made inquiries about
Morton. I found that a rumor had already been circulated in the town
that a great detective had come to the Towers, and there was some
excitement as to the reason of his visit. Mr. Giles must surely have
mentioned our call, I thought. I also heard that Frisby Morton had
left for London by the mid-day train, and I wondered if there was any
significance in the fact of his departure coinciding with Quarles's
arrival.
The professor did not return to the Heron until late. He was tired and
hungry, and would neither talk nor listen to me until he had made a
square meal.
"I found a splendid spot to think in, Wigan," he said, when the three
of us were in our sitting-room. "A disused gravel-pit. I shared it
with a frog for a time, but he worried me so I took him by the leg and
threw him out. I looked for him afterward with the intention of
throwing him in again. I could not find him, but as I was turning
away, would you believe it, he hopped in again of his own accord."
I was not in the mood for an AEsop fable, and with some impatience I
told him the results of my inquiries that afternoon.
"Gone, has he? Business called him to town, I presume?"
"Perhaps his solicitor wanted him to be out of reach of questions," I
suggested.
"Our friend Giles is quite capable of it," Quarles returned. "He has
not impressed me; but to return to my frog. There were quite a number
of places near that gravel-pit which would have suited him equally
well; but no, he would get back to the pit. I cannot say he gave me an
idea, but he helped to confirm one. The mind, be it frog's or man's,
is certain to be biased by circumstances and environment. If you
watched a frog through a period of time, apart from his actions
necessary to life and well-being, you would find him doing certain
other things, doing them to-day because he did them yesterday. He
acquires a habit. Men do the same. The more curious these actions are,
the more eccentric the individual becomes. You remember Zena warned us
that we had to do with an eccentric in this affair, and therefore was
inclined to believe in the existence of a will."
Zena nodded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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