It is positively
maddening."
Perhaps, in his heart, Brett felt that Winter was not so greatly to blame.
The sudden appearance on the scene of a portly and respectable stranger
was disconcerting, but could hardly serve as an excuse for leaving Jiro's
trail at the point of bifurcation.
Moreover, it is difficult to suspect stout people of criminal tendencies.
Winter had the best of negative evidence that they are not adapted for
"treasons, spoils, and stratagems." Even a convicted rogue, if corpulent,
demands sympathy.
But Brett was very sore. He stamped about the room and kicked unoffending
chairs out of the way. His unfailing instinct told him that a rare
opportunity had been lost. It was well for Winter that he was beyond reach
of the barrister's tongue. A valid defence would have availed him naught.
David entered.
"I just seized an opportunity--" he commenced eagerly, but Brett levelled
his cigar at him as if it were a revolver.
"You want to tell me," he cried, "that before you were two hours in
Portsmouth you ascertained Frazer's address from an old friend. You caught
the next train for London, went to his lodgings, encountered a nagging
landlady, and found that your cousin had taken his overcoat to the
pawnbroker's to raise money for his fair to Stowmarket You drove
frantically to Liverpool Street, interviewed a smart platform inspector,
and he told you--"
"That all I had to do was to ask Brett, and he would not only give me a
detailed history of my own actions, but produce the very man he sent me in
search of," interrupted David, laughing.
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