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Rh more directly. "I was obliged to leave him, as well as the police, to imagine as they pleased what circumstances, what motives, could force a man of reputation and character like mine to remain silent as to how he received a wound that subjects him to the suspicions and the dangers I now run."

"It seems strange, Mr. Hereford," the detective offered after a pause, "but no doubt I'll find your reasons for acting in that way quite sufficient."

"I offer no reasons, even to you. You must be content, for the time at least, to regard this wound merely as a coincidence," Hereford replied curtly.

The detective gnawed his mustache, staring fixedly and doubtfully at his client.

"You spoke of the police," he said at last.

"Because Baraka returned here, an hour