It was
the first time I had ever told anyone the exact truth, so far as I
understood it, and it did me no end of good, for it straightened out
the thing in my own mind. I blinked no detail. He heard all about
Scudder, and the milkman, and the note-book, and my doings in
Galloway. Presently he got very excited and walked up and down
the hearth-rug.
'So you see,' I concluded, 'you have got here in your house the
man that is wanted for the Portland Place murder. Your duty is to
send your car for the police and give me up. I don't think I'll get
very far. There'll be an accident, and I'll have a knife in my ribs an
hour or so after arrest. Nevertheless, it's your duty, as a law-abiding
citizen. Perhaps in a month's time you'll be sorry, but you have no
cause to think of that.'
He was looking at me with bright steady eyes. 'What was your
job in Rhodesia, Mr Hannay?' he asked.
'Mining engineer,' I said. 'I've made my pile cleanly and I've had
a good time in the making of it.'
'Not a profession that weakens the nerves, is it?'
I laughed. 'Oh, as to that, my nerves are good enough.' I took
down a hunting-knife from a stand on the wall, and did the old
Mashona trick of tossing it and catching it in my lips. That wants a
pretty steady heart.
He watched me with a smile. 'I don't want proof. I may be an ass
on the platform, but I can size up a man.
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