Page:Bailey - Call Mr Fortune (Dutton, 1921).djvu/261

250 mean to throw Sandford into the lake. He wanted to be thrown in, he wanted to be killed, and get Sandford hanged for it."

"I suppose so," Lomas agreed. "It's a case that's happened before. And you couldn't always say the creatures that planned it were mad."

"Not legally mad. Not medically mad. I always said that. No, I don't know that it's even very strange. Quite a lot of people would be ready to die if they could get their enemies killed by their death. Only they don't see their way. But he was an able fellow, the late Kimball."

"Able! I should say so. If our men hadn't been here, Sandford would have been as good as hanged. Nobody could have believed his story. Why did he come here? There could be no evidence of Kimball's telephone call. What did Sandford come for? There's no reasonable reason. Kimball put him under a cloud, he was furious, he meant murder, and did it. The jury wouldn't leave the box."

"That's right, sir," said Superintendent Bell. "If it wasn't for Mr. Fortune he'd be down and out. What you might call a rarity in our work, that is, to save a man from a charge of murder before it comes along."

"How do you mean?" Reggie seemed to come back from other thoughts. "Oh, because I told you to have Kimball watched. Well, it was pretty clear