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Page 51
But Dr. Mannering did not answer these questions. He was
considering a little book in his pocket, which he would hand over
to the police in London next morning.
"Poor chap--if he could have begun by taking the problem by the
throat, as he has written here. But, instead, it took him by the
throat!"
He took Hardcastle's notebook from his pocket and read again the
last few pages.
"He was dreaming of his theories to the last, when he should
surely have been girt up in every limb to face facts," said Lennox.
"He never realized the horrible danger."
Perusal of the detective's data had revealed an interesting fact.
It was known by his colleagues that he designed a book on the
theory and practice of criminal investigations, and in many of his
pocket-books, subsequently examined, were found memoranda and
jottings, doubtless destined to be worked out at another time. It
was clear that he had, for a few moments, drifted away from the
Grey Room in thought when his death overtook him. Past events,
not present problems, were apparently responsible for the
reflections that occupied his mind. He was not concentrating on
the material phenomena actually under his observation when he died,
but following some private meditations provoked by his experiences.
"Elimination embraces the secret of success," he had written.
"Exercise the full force of your intelligence and spare no pains
to eliminate from every case all matter not bearing directly upon
the actual problem. Nine times out of ten the issue is direct,
and once permit side issues to draw their tracks across it, once
admit metaphysical lines of reasoning, the result will be
confusion and a problem increasing in complexity at every stage.
Only in romances, where a plot is invented and then complicated by
deliberate art, shall we find the truth ultimately permitted to
appear in some subordinate incident, or individual, studiously
kept in the background--that is the craft of telling detective
stories. But, in truth, one needs to lay hold of the problem by
the throat at the outset. Deception is too much the province of
the criminal and too little the business of the investigator; and
where it may be possible to creep, like a snake, into a case,
unknown for what you truly are, then your opportunities and
chances of success are enormously increased. It is, however, the
exception when one can start without the knowledge of anybody
involved, and the Scotland Yard of the future will pursue its
business under very different circumstances from the present. The
detective's work should be made easier and not more difficult.
None should know who is working on a case. The law's
representatives should be disguised and move among the characters
surrounding the crime as something other than they really are.
They will--"
Here Hardcastle's reflections came to an end. Some previous notes
there were of superficial accidents in the Grey Room and a rough
ground plan of it; but nothing more. He had evidently, for the
time being, broken away from his environment and was merely
thinking, with a pen on paper, when he died.
CHAPTER VIl
THE FANATIC
A succession of incidents, that must have perturbed the doctor and
his companion in earnest, had followed upon their departure from
Chadlands, and Mary soon discovered that she was faced with a
terrible problem.
For one young woman had little chance of winning her way against
an old man and the religious convictions that another had impressed
upon him. Sir Walter and the priest were now at one, nor did the
common sense of a fourth party to the argument convince them. At
dinner Septimus May declared his purpose.
"We are happily free of any antagonistic and material influence,"
he said. "Providence has willed that those opposed to us should be
taken elsewhere, and I am now able to do my duty without more
opposition."
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