decent symbol which indemnifies the taker of a life; and might the
Lord have mercy on my soul... Already he was addressing me... What had
he said? I asked him to repeat it. My voice sounded even further away
than his. He repeated that he thought we had met before. I heard my
voice saying politely, somewhere in the distance, that I thought not.
He suggested that I had been staying at some hotel in Colchester six
years ago. My voice, drawing a little nearer to me, explained that I
had never in my life been at Colchester. He begged my pardon and hoped
no offence would be taken where none had been meant. My voice, coming
right back to its own quarters, reassured him that of course I had
taken no offence at all, adding that I myself very often mistook one
face for another. He replied, rather inconsequently, that the world
was a small place.

Evidently he must have prepared this remark to follow my expected
admission that I had been at that hotel in Colchester six years ago,
and have thought it too striking a remark to be thrown away. A
guileless creature evidently, and not a criminal at all. Then I
reflected that most of the successful criminals succeed rather through
the incomparable guilelessness of the police than through any devilish
cunning in themselves. Besides, this man looked the very incarnation
of ruthless cunning. Surely, he must but have dissembled. My
suspicions of him resurged. But somehow, I was no longer afraid of
him. Whatever crimes he might have been committing, and be going to
commit, I felt that he meant no harm to me. After all, why should I
have imagined myself to be in danger? Meanwhile, I would try to draw
the man out, pitting my wits against his.

I proceeded to do so. He was very voluble in a quiet way. Before long
I was in possession of all the materials for an exhaustive biography