He looked at his friend shrewdly, and seemed to be waiting for the
fuller confession to come from him. Benny debated it an instant, his
teeth gnawing the stem of his pipe. Then he spoke.
"You mean to say that Philip Gaillarde has gone into Italy to arrest Sir
Luton?"
"That is exactly how I would put it."
"And that he knows the whole story?"
"I don’t think there’s any doubt about it. He has been told that Luton
Delayne was the man, and he has obtained permission to go to Locarno and
to help the police there. It is his own idea—though the local police
should be very well able to help themselves. The question for us is one
of social jurisprudence. Is it good for the other English, for the
people who come here every year, to have this scandal to their
discredit? I would go further, and ask, is it at any time wise to push
such a case against such a family as the Delaynes? Speaking for myself,
I don’t think it is. Luton Delayne is a modern type; I suppose in New
York they would understand him very well; but here we are educated
slowly. The Swiss police are a little more ignorant than ourselves. I
have had a chat with Ardlot, the French secretary at the hotel, and he
tells me that they will be merciless if they succeed in arresting the
man. We know what that means; perhaps we are interested enough to ask
how others might take it."
Benny pulled heavily at his pipe. When he removed it from his lips it
was to say:
"Wouldn’t the singular number be better, Doctor? Shouldn’t we say ’one
other’?"
"If you like it so, by all means. But, let me tell you, I am talking
quite in the dark; I don’t know where Gaillarde speaks the truth; I am
quite unaware if Delayne is in Italy, or no. That’s why I came to you—"
"Then you believe that I know?"
"I am sure you do."
For a spell the two men sat looking at each other in silence. Benny
neither denied nor affirmed the charge. His eyes searched the
flickering fire as though for an inspiration. The problem was clear
enough; he wondered if the doctor knew how much it meant to him.
"I guess you’re a bit of a thought reader, Doctor," he exclaimed of a
sudden, taking up the conversation exactly as it was left. "I do know
where Luton Delayne is, and that’s a fact. Let me be as plain with you.
What you came here to do was to warn me. You wish me to know that the
police are inquiring after him. Don’t you think it’s a little late for
that? Gaillarde will be half-way to Brigue by this time. He’ll be in
Milan before we’ve done our second breakfast. What’s the good of all
this then, knowing what we do? Isn’t it a bit foolish?"
Orange hardly understood him.
"My dear fellow," he protested, "I was not thinking anything of the
kind. Will not the telegraph serve our purpose just as well?"
Benny shook his head.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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