He had waited there a full hour and over
now, his only purpose had been to prevent the removal of the evidence of
the Pippin's guilt by the Pippin, and logic told him it was useless to
wait longer. It was only fair to assume that the Pippin would have
discovered his loss within a reasonably short time after leaving
Melinoff's; and, granting that, it was absolutely certain that the
Pippin, if he were coming back at all, would have come without an
instant's delay if he believed that his life hung on the recovery of his
property. He had not come, and therefore, conversely, the Pippin must
have weighed the chances and concluded that the risk attendant on his
return to the scene of his crime was greater than the risk he ran of the
cuff link having been lost in that exact spot. Nor was the Pippin's
presumed reasoning entirely faulty--from the Pippin's standpoint. It was
obvious that he did not know _where_ he had lost the link; it was only a
_chance_ that he had lost it on the actual scene of the crime; and even
if he had lost it there, and even if he returned, it was only a _chance_
that he would be able to find it again--and against this was the very
grave risk and danger of returning to Melinoff's after having once got
safely away.
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