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 was a conspiracy of lies against him. I ’d say he was intending to make unjust accusations against himself, anonymously, and then produce the reports of our men to show that the accusations were unjust. He could show, for example, that he could n’t have done what the letters said, because he was n’t in the place where they accused him of being, at the time they said. Do you understand that?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Having convinced her that he was the victim of such a conspiracy, he could easily make her believe that she had been deceived about him in the past. And regain her sympathy. Eh?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Very good. But this man is too big to be playing that sort of game as an end in itself. He ’s too big. Unless I ’ve lost my eye.” He sat down and looked at Barney vacantly. His face became mildly blank in thought. “At college, studying medicine, he was probably a poor boy, very ambitious. He went in