Part 18 (2/2)
”Implicitly,” Ember a.s.serted with conviction.
”Could you find him, if necessary?”
”Within a day, I think. Do you wish me to?”
”I don't know...”
Ember permitted Whitaker to consider the matter in silence for some moments. Then, ”Do you want advice?” he inquired.
”Well?”
”Hunt him down and put him behind the bars,” said Ember instantly.
”What's the good of that?”
”Your personal safety.”
”How?”
”Don't you suppose he misses all he's been accustomed to?--living as he does in constant terror of being discovered, the life of a hunted thing, one of the under-world, an enemy of society! Don't you suppose he'd be glad to regain all he's lost--business, social position, the esteem of his friends, the love of a woman who will soon be free to marry him?”
”Well?”
”With you out of the way, he could come back without fear.”
”Oh--preposterous!”
”_Is_ it?”
”Drummond's not that sort. He's weak, perhaps, but no criminal.”
”A criminal is the creature of a warped judgment. There'd be no criminals if every one were able to attain his desires within the law.
Misfortunes breed weird maggots in a man's brain. Drummond's dragging out a wretched existence in a world of false perspectives; he's not to be blamed if he presently begins to see things as they are not.”
Ember permitted another pause to lengthen, unbroken by Whitaker.
”Shall I try to find him for you?” he asked quietly, in the end.
”No,” Whitaker decided. ”No. Let him alone--poor devil!”
Ember disclaimed further responsibility with a movement of his shoulders.
”But my wife? Could you find her as readily?”
”Possibly,” the detective admitted cautiously. ”But I don't mean to.”
”Why not?”
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