will arrest Grell for murder?"

The superintendent caressed his chin and hesitated a little before
replying.

"I have been quite open with you, Sir Ralph. I don't know. As things are
at present, it looks uncommonly as though he had a hand in it. He is the
only person who can clear himself. While he remains in hiding everything
looks black against him. We have managed to keep things quiet until the
resumption of the inquest. When that takes place we shall not be able to
maintain the confusion of identity. With things as they stand, the jury
are practically certain to return a verdict of murder against him. If
he is not guilty, his best chance is for us to find him. Understand me,
Sir Ralph. If he is innocent you are doing him no service by refraining
from helping us. Every day makes things blacker. If he is guilty--well,
it is for you to judge whether you will shield a murderer even if he is
your friend."

To another person, Foyle would have used another method of persuasion,
talking more but saying less. He had staked much on his estimate of the
baronet's character, and awaited his reply with an anxiety of which his
face gave no trace. Very rare were the occasions on which he had told so
much of an unfinished investigation to another person, and that person
not an official of Scotland Yard. Often he had feigned to open his heart
with the same object--to win confidence by apparent confidence. The
difference now was that he had given the facts without concealment or
suppression.

Fairfield fingered his watch-chain, and the big office clock loudly
ticked five minutes away.

"I will assist you as far as I can, but you must allow me to decide when
to remain neutral," he said at last.

"Agreed," said Foyle, and the two shook hands on the bargain.

CHAPTER XXIV

Dutch Fred changed his seat to one less conspicuous and farther up the
tramcar. He felt that his luck was dead out, that life was a blank. And
that Heldon Foyle of all men should have chosen that particular moment
to board that particular tramcar had, as Fred would have expressed it,
"absolutely put the lid on." Fred knew very well how to circumvent the
precaution taken by order of the police that public vehicles should have
the back of the seats filled in to prevent pocket-picking. Instead of
sitting behind a victim, one sat by his side, with a "stall" behind to
pass the plunder to. A "dip" of class--and Dutch Fred was an
acknowledged master--never k