"I _know_," said Storm carefully, "that the evidence I have secured from Raegenssen, together with what I have obtained from another man, will kill the Alpha Triangle. I could arrest the Apex to-day--but I won't!" He heard the suppressed gasp that went up, and smiled faintly at Inspector Teal's muffled "Good God!" "No one but myself," he went on simply, "has anything like the evidence necessary to secure a conviction--I even doubt very much if I could get one myself. You can be satisfied that it is a moral certainty, even if it would fail to convince a Grand Jury. But, at the instance of the late Lord Hannassay, and with the consent of Sir John Marker, I was given carte blanche in this case, and you must continue that support." "_Must_ is a strong word, Captain Arden," said the Home Secretary mildly. "I am a strong man," said Storm. He spoke quietly, not as a boaster, but as one who states a fact, and his cool assurance staggered the Board. Whereas before they had been scowling or incredulous, according to temperament, they were united in indignation. "P-please make yourself p-p-plain," stammered Smethurst harshly. "It's rather obvious already," said Storm calmly. "The Alpha Triangle is my father. You needn't think I'm giving away my secret, because I'm not! If you took the trouble to trace my father, you'd come up against a dead end. You'd laugh at the idea--just as you'd laugh if I told you openly now. But, anyway, I don't want you to try and trace him. I don't want this case messed up with a lot of flat-footed half-wits trying to take my place! You're at my mercy. Do what you like. Sack me. Keep me on under supervision. It won't help you, because in a few hours I shall be the only man who can hope to catch the Alpha Triangle. In time, I mean. Of course, I suppose there are plenty of other men who could mug along till they got him--but by that time the Triangle will have cost the country hundreds of thousands of pounds and many lives. You can take your choice...." He had them stymied. Their world was reeling about their ears. Never within living memory had a man dared to address a Board of Inquiry in such an arrogant manner. Storm set at naught their authority, he was coldly indifferent to the fact that he laid himself open to prosecution, he had given them an ultimatum with all the casualness of a man to whom acceptance or rejection means nothing to speak of--and the chilled insolence of it dazed them. And Storm, while they strove to collect their wits, was leisurely lighting a cigarette and smiling as affably as if he had merely made some commonplace remark about the weather, instead of handing out to Their Augustnesses the starkest slice of sheer frozen case-hardened nerve in their experience....