“That’s just what I want to do. And, as a sort of guarantee of good faith, I’m going to tell you exactly what it was that made me suspicious of you the other day. You brought me a photograph of myself and told me you had found it on the body of the man who was killed. Now, I was quite prepared to believe you; he had got, and I knew he had got, a photograph of me. But the photograph you showed me was not the one I gave him. It was a portrait taken on the same occasion, at the same sitting; but it was in a slightly different pose. So I thought, you see, that you were setting a trap for me. Your manner was so dreadfully Come-now-young-woman-I-know-all-about-you, that I really thought you were a policeman, and were trying to bluff me in some way . . . No, I haven’t finished yet. There was one person living round here who had a copy of the other photograph, the same kind as you showed me. And that was Mr. Davenant, whom they arrested this morning as the murderer.” “I see. Yes, of course you must have thought I was trying it on. The fact is, I don’t yet know exactly how that photograph got into my possession, but I can give a guess now, which I couldn’t have then.” And he described in outline the discovery of the secret passage and the sliding panel. “You see, if it was Davenant who was behind that panelling all the time, it was quite possible for him to take away the portrait we found on Brotherhood, and to put the portrait you gave him there instead. I can’t think why he should have wanted to do it; but there were four of us who all thought at the time that the photograph looked different when we took it down from the cornice. And that’s quite natural, if it really was a different one.” “Well, all that gets us into the reason why I called. Mr. Reeves, are you working in any sort of co-operation with the police?” “No. I helped the police by taking them to Weighford and back in my motor, but I’m not working for them, I’m working on my own. To tell the truth, I haven’t very much confidence in the intelligence of the police, or in their methods.” He omitted, somehow, to mention that the co-operation of civilians was contrary to police regulations. “In that case I can speak freely. But I want you to understand, please, that I tell you all this in complete confidence so far as the police are concerned. Now, will that be all right? I mean, I suppose you will be called as a witness.” “I suppose that they can only call me as a witness of how I found the body on Tuesday, and how I took the police to Weighford to-day. There is no reason why they should expect me to have any theories about who the murderer was. I think it will be all right.” “Well, I’ll risk it, anyhow. You see, I know that the police, once they’ve caught a man, will always want to convict that man, merely so as to save themselves trouble, and save their own faces.”