by
Inspector Chippenfield.

"That will do very well. And how did you happen to be at the inquest at
Hampstead? That is a bit out of your way."

Mr. Evans mopped his eyes, and Inspector Seldon took upon himself to
reply for him. "He has a brother-in-law in the trade at Hampstead--keeps
the _Three Jugs_ in Coulter Street. Evans had to go out to see his
brother-in-law on business, and his brother-in-law took him along to the
court out of curiosity."

Inspector Chippenfield nodded.

"Rolfe," he said, "take down Mr. Evans's statement outside and get him to
sign it. Don't go away when you've finished. I want you."

Mr. Evans, even if he felt that full justice had been done to his story
by Inspector Seldon, was disappointed at the police officer's failure to
do justice to his manly scruples in coming forward to give evidence
against a man who had never done him any harm. Addressing Inspector
Chippenfield he said:

"I don't altogether like mixing myself up in this business. That isn't my
way. If I have a thing to say to a man I like to say it to his face. I
don't like a man to say things behind a man's back, that is, if he calls
himself a man. But I thought over this thing after leaving the court and
hearing this chap Hill say he hadn't left home that night, and I talked
it over with my wife--"

"You did the right thing," said Inspector Chippenfield, with the emphasis
of a man who had profited by the triumph of right.

Mr. Evans was under the impression that the inspector's approval referred
chiefly to the part he had played as a husband in talking over his
perplexity with his wife, rather than the part he had played as a man in
revealing that Hill had lied in his evidence.

"I always do," he said. "My wife's one of the sensible sort, and when a
man takes her advice he don't go far wrong. She advised me to go straight
to the police-station and tell them all I know. 'It is a cruel murder,'
she said, 'and who knows but it might be our turn next?'"

This example of the imaginative element in feminine logic made no
impression on the practical official who listened to the admiring
husband.

"That is all right," said Inspector Chippenfield soothingly. "I
understand your scruples. They do you credit. But an honest man like you
doesn't want to shield a criminal from justice--least of all a
cold-blooded murderer."

When Rolfe returned to his superior with Evans's signed statement in his
hand, he found the inspector prep