the burden of contempt and
ridicule, which the press and the general public would presently be
hurling at him and at his department for their hopeless incompetence
in allowing a murderer to escape.

Therefore he was putting the case against Luke more clearly and with a
greater wealth of detail before his brother-in-law than the
conscientious discharge of duty should have allowed. In fact we see
Sir Thomas Ryder--a hard disciplinarian, a hide and tape bound
official--freely transgressing the most elementary rules which duty
prescribes. He was sitting in his private office with his
brother-in-law, giving away secrets that belonged not to him but to
his department, conniving through the words which he spoke at the
fleeing from justice of a criminal who belonged not to him but to the
State.

He was making the case against Luke de Mountford to appear as black as
it was in effect, so that Colonel Harris and Louisa might take fright
and induce the unfortunate man to realize his danger in time and to
shrink from facing the consequences of his own terrible deed.

But Colonel Harris--with the obstinacy of those who throughout life
have never led but have always been ruled--would not see the case
through his brother-in-law's spectacles. He clung to his own
repudiation of the possibility of Luke de Mountford's guilt. He
behaved quite unconsciously, just as Louisa would have wished him to
behave, had she been present here to prompt him.

To Sir Thomas's most convincing _expose_ of the situation he lent an
attentive ear, but the shrug of his shoulders when the other man
paused to take breath was in itself a testimony of loyalty to Luke's
cause.

"Hang it all, man," he said, "you are not going to sit there and tell
me that Luke de Mountford--the man whom I myself would have chosen as
a son-in-law had Lou not forestalled me--that Luke would commit a
deliberate murder? In the name of common-sense, Tom, why it's
unthinkable! Do you mean to say that you actually believe that Luke,
after he left that God-forsaken club, joined his cousin again as if
nothing had happened; that he got into a taxicab with him, and poked
him through the neck whilst the man was looking another way."

"Roughly speaking," assented Sir Thomas, "I believe that's what
happened."

"And you call yourself a shrewd detective!" exclaimed Colonel Harris
hotly. "And you hold the lives of men practically in the hollow of
your hand! Why, man! have you forgotten one