Page:Bat Wing 1921.djvu/192

184 “What steps did you take?”

“My friend, Mr. Knox, had joined me, and I sent him for assistance.”

“But what steps did you take to apprehend the murderer?”

Paul Harley looked at him quietly.

“What steps should you have taken?” he asked.

Inspector Aylesbury cleared his throat again, and:

“I don’t think I should have let my man slip through my fingers like that,” he replied. “Why! by now he may be out of the county.”

“Your theory is quite feasible,” said Harley, tonelessly.

“You were actually on the spot when the shot was fired, you admit that it was fired within a hundred yards, yet you did nothing to apprehend the murderer.”

“No,” replied Harley, “I was ridiculously inactive. You see, I am a mere amateur, Inspector. For my future guidance I should be glad to know what the correct procedure would have been.”

Inspector Aylesbury blew his nose.

“I know my job,” he said. “If I had been called in there might have been a different tale to tell. But he was a foreigner, and he paid for his ignorance, poor fellow.”

Paul Harley took out his pipe and began to load it in a deliberate and lazy manner.

Inspector Aylesbury turned his prominent eyes in my direction.