Part 57 (1/2)
”Not one in a hundred, sir.”
”Still, any that are important I hear of.”
”Mine, sir, would not have been reckoned important,” said the man bitterly.
The King looked hard at him, not with any real suspicion, for his straightforward bearing inspired liking as well as confidence. But here was a man whose measure must be carefully taken, for he was certainly doing a very extraordinary thing.
”And have you something really important to tell me?”
Their eyes met on a pause that spoke better than words.
”Yes,” said the man. Quietly he shut the door.
”Won't you come nearer?” said the King, for the depth of a large chamber divided them. But the disciplined figure kept its place. Slowly but without hesitation he gave what he had to say.
”I am dismissed the force,” he began; ”but that's not important--at least only to me--though I suppose that's partly why I'm here, for a man must fight when his living is taken from him. I am dismissed because your Majesty got out of the palace the other night without my hearing of it.”
The King breathed his astonishment, but said nothing.
”I admit I ought to have known, but the man we had on duty at that door didn't know your Majesty--at least not so as to be sure. I asked him yesterday who it was went out, and he said--well, sir, he thought it was one of the palace stewards. They use that door a good deal at night, so I'm told.”
”That he did not recognize me was, of course, my own doing,” said the King.
”I know that, sir,” replied the man, ”but in the detective force we can't afford to make those sort of allowances. The consequence is--I'm out of it.”
”I'm sorry, Inspector. What do you want me to do?”
”Well, sir, I'm here because I know something that I can't tell to another soul on earth. If I could have gone to them with it, I needn't have troubled your Majesty. But, so happens, I haven't got the proof.”
”Are you going to ask me to believe you without proof?”
”Your Majesty can get the proof--or see it anyway. It's there at Dean's Court.”
”Dean's Court? What is that?”
”Where the police museum is, sir. The proof of what I'm going to tell your Majesty lies there.”
This was getting interesting. ”Pray go on,” said the King.
”That bomb,” said the man, ”the one that was thrown at your Majesty the other day--all the pieces of it are in the museum now.”
He paused, then added--
”They have gone back to the place they came from.”
It was evident then, from the man's tone, that to his own mind he had stated the essential part of his case.
But the King, his brain working on unfamiliar ground, missed the connection.
”I do not quite understand,” he said.