“my god!” said freyberger. “you!”
“let me get up,” said the other. “yes, it is i; we have both been mistaken it seems.”
freyberger said nothing, but rose to his feet and flung the extinguished match away. they were again in darkness, but the detective did not strike another light.
for a moment he was too angry for speech. certain in his own mind that he was dealing with klein, triumphant at having captured him, his feelings may be imagined when he found beneath him, not the criminal for whom he had been seeking, but the interloper, hellier.
hellier had also risen to his feet.
“strike a light,” he said, “and let me see where i am. i am giddy from that fall.”
“i will strike no light,” replied the other, in a hard voice “you can explain yourself in the darkness. you have cast enough darkness on this business already. you ought to be used to darkness; come, explain yourself.”
“explain what?” said hellier, in an irritable voice. “it seems to me the explanation is clear enough.”
“make it clearer. what are you doing here? what are you meddling in police affairs for? eh! you are one of those confounded people who fancy themselves, one of those people who will not see where their own business lies. what are you doing here?”
“seems to me, i’m talking to a fool,” replied the other. “you know well enough why i am here. i came here to find a mutual acquaintance of ours named klein. if not to find him, at least, to find traces of him and to inspect the premises. you told me this morning you did not think he had been here, yet i find you here on the same job as myself; if you had only been frank this would not have happened.”
“well,” replied the other, “you have been here and have not found him, so you had better go. i will give him your kind regards when i see him, which will not be to-night. you have spoilt the affair as far as possible.”
“how?”
“how? you have frightened him, that is all.”
“how?”
“how?” shouted freyberger, “by your d—d silly attempt to follow him this morning, that is how.”
“if i had not seen him, should we have known of his connexion with this house?”
“a thousand times better never to have known, considering the price we have paid for our knowledge. he was unsuspecting, now he suspects. so long as he was unsuspecting, all the chances were in our favour. now they are all against us. go, tell your young lady that. say inspector freyberger told you to tell her, and say anything else you please.”
hellier did not reply. he felt deeply mortified, for he felt there was truth in the words.
he re-entered the verandah and opened the door leading to the garden.
“are you going to remain?” he asked.
“i am.”
“well, all i can say is i am very sorry. what i did was for the best.”
“it will be a lesson to you in future,” replied the other, “to trust people who are to be trusted, and let the police do their own work.”
“good night,” said hellier. freyberger grumbled some reply and the young man departed.
now hellier had committed no great fault; he had even supplied information that might have brought the whole case to a satisfactory termination. but freyberger was not in a frame of mind to do justice to the barrister.
he was jealous, and that is the fact of the matter, as jealous of the gyde affair as any old man has ever been of his young wife.
