"If I go to the nearest policeman, and say, as I intend to do, I am the man who murdered George Emmett, so far as Miss Gilbert is concerned, the matter will be at an end." "Your reason is based upon more than one fallacy, really. Consider--a warrant has been issued for Miss Gilbert's arrest--good! or, if you prefer it, bad. Do you suppose the police won't execute that warrant, if they get a chance, merely because you say she's innocent? They'll keep her under lock and key until there is some more substantial proof of her innocence than your bare word; if it can be avoided you surely don't wish to subject her to the inconvenience of spending even a few hours in jail. There is another point. From what I can gather she is the only material witness of your guilt; yet she assured me that, though they put her in the witness-box, she wouldn't give evidence against you." "I wouldn't--I'd die first!" "You hear? There's a refractory position to take up! From what I have seen of the young lady I shouldn't be surprised if she kept her word, to the extent of defying judge and jury--conceive the pains and penalties which your inconsiderate action would bring down on her devoted head." "What do you suggest? You know that she has already been arrested once, and that she only escaped----" "Through your dropping the unfortunate policeman into the river--I know." "He is hardly likely to let the matter rest where it is in consequence." "Poor man! he was so wet! I've a sort of idea that I'm beginning to get dry." "The probability is that the whole countryside is looking out for her at this moment; if she manages to evade pursuit to-night the odds are that she will be taken again in the morning. Do you suggest that I shall stand by, and suffer her to be taken, and keep silent?" "Mr Arnecliffe, I have not yet touched on the point which tells most against the course of action you are proposing to pursue. You say you are going to tell the first policeman you are so fortunate as to encounter that you're the man who murdered George Emmett. Let me tell you, sir, that in making that statement you will be incurring a very grave responsibility; since it is by no means certain that you did murder George Emmett." "That's what I said! That's what I told him! That's what I was trying to explain to him when you came in!" "Am I to understand that you hesitated to give Miss Gilbert's statement the weight it deserved?" Arnecliffe laughed. "You surely don't propose to associate yourself with Miss Gilbert in splitting hairs!" "Splitting hairs, sir? No! That is a process in which I propose to associate myself with no one. If you will have the goodness to permit me to finish what I have to say it will shortly become quite clear that nothing is farther from my mind than any species of equivocation. You will probably have heard that that genius of a local doctor was prepared to certify that the man was dead when he wasn't."