"Which man?" said Hamilton cynically.
"I refer to my client," said Bones not without dignity.
"Look here, Bones," said Hamilton with great seriousness, "do you think
this is a very nice business you are in? Personally, I think it's
immoral."
"What do you mean--immoral?" demanded the indignant Bones.
"Prying into other people's lives," said Hamilton.
"Lives," retorted the oracular Bones, "are meant to be pried into, dear
old thing. An examination of jolly old motives is essential to
scientific progress. I feel I am doing a public duty," he went on
virtuously, "exposing the naughty, chastising the sinful, and all that
sort of thing."
"But, honestly," said Hamilton persistently, "do you think it's the
game to chase around collecting purely private details about people's
goings on?"
"Certainly," said Bones firmly, "certainly, dear old thing. It's a
public duty. Never let it be written on the fair pages of Thiggumy
that a Tibbetts shrank back when the call of patriotism--all that sort
of thing--you know what I mean?"
"I don't," said Hamilton.
"Well, you're a jolly old dense one," said Bones. "And let me say here
and now"--he rammed his bony knuckles on the table and withdrew them
with an "Ouch!" to suck away the pain--"let me tell you that, as the
Latin poet said, 'Ad What's-his name, ad Thiggumy.' 'Everything
human's frightfully interesting'!"
Bones turned up at his detective office the next morning, full of zeal,
and Hilton immediately joined him in his private office.
"Well, we finish one case to-day, I think," said Hilton with
satisfaction. "It has been very hard trailing him, but I got a good
man on the job, and here's the record."
He held in his hand a sheaf of papers.
"Very good," said Bones. "Excellent! I hope we shall bring the
malefactor to justice."
"He's not exactly a malefactor," demurred Hilton. "It is a job we were
doing for one of our best clients."
"Excellent, excellent!" murmured Bones. "And well we've done it, I'm
sure." He leant back in his chair and half closed his eyes. "Tell me
what you have discovered."
"This man's a bit of a fool in some ways," said Hilton.
"Which man--the client?"
"No, the fellow we've been trailing."
"Yes, yes," said Bones. "Go on."
"In fact, I wonder that Mr. de Vinne bothered about him."
"De Vinne?" said Bones sitting up. "Harold de Vinne, the moneyed one?"
"That's him. He's one of our oldest customers," said Hilton.
"Indeed," said Bones, this time without any enthusiasm at all.
"You see, a man did him in the eye," explained Mr. Hilton, "swindled
him, and all that sort of thing. Well, I think we have got enough to
make this chap look silly."
"Oh, yes," said Bones politely. "What have you got?"