"Did you ever reveal this important information to anyone else?"
"No. I did not. Only Jerrold would have understood its true gravity."
"Then it concerned him--eh?"
"No. It concerned somebody else. I was on my way to consult him--to
ask his opinion as to how I should act, when I found I could not get
into his room. His man helped me to break in, and we found him dying.
In fact, he spoke to me--he said he'd been shot--just before he
expired."
"Yes, I know," remarked Tennant reflectively. "I happened to be present
in court when the inquest was held. I heard your evidence, and I also
heard the evidence of Sir Houston Bird, who testified as to suicide."
"Jerrold did not take his life!" Jack protested.
"Can you put your opinion before that of such a man as Sir Houston?"
asked Tennant dubiously.
"He had no motive in committing suicide."
"Ah! I think your opinion will rather alter, that is, if the
prosecution reveals to you the truth. He had, according to my
information, every motive for escape from exposure and punishment."
"Impossible!" declared Jack Sainsbury, standing defiant and rather
amused than otherwise at the ridiculous charge brought against him.
"Dr Jerrold was not a man to shrink from his duty. He did his best to
combat the peril of the enemy alien, and if others had had the courage
to act as he did, we should not be faced with the scandalous situation--
our enemies moving freely among us--that we have to-day."
Inspector Tennant--typical of the slow-plodding of police officialdom,
and the careful attention to method of those who have risen from
"uniformed rank"--listened and smiled.
Upon the warrant was a distinct charge against the young man before him,
and upon that charge he centred his hide-bound mind. It is always so
easy to convict a suspect by one's inner intuition. Had Jack Sainsbury
been able to glance at the file of papers which had culminated in his
conviction, he would have seen that only after Jerome Jerrold's death
had the charge of war-treason been brought against him. There was no
charge of espionage, because, according to the Hague Convention, nobody
can technically be charged as a spy unless the act of espionage is
committed within the war zone. England was not then--because Zeppelin
raids had not taken place--within the war zone. Hence nobody could be
charged as a spy.
"Mr Sainsbury, I think there is nothing more to say to-night," Tennant
said at last. "It is growing late. I'll see that your message is sent
to Fitzjohn's Avenue by telephone. They will see you in the morning
regarding your defence. But--well, I confess that I'm sorry that you
should have said so much as you have."
"So much!" cried the young man furiously. "Here I am, arrested upon a
false charge--accused of being a traitor to my country--and you regret
that I dare to defend a man who is in his grave and cannot answer for
himself! Are you an Englishman--or are you one of those tainted by the
Teuton trail--as so many are in high places?"
"I think you are losing your temper," said the red-tape-tangled
inspector of the Special Branch--a man who held one of the plums of the
Scotland Yard service. "I have had an order, and I have executed it.
That is as far as I can go."
"At my expense. You charge me with an offence which is utterly
ridiculous, and beyond that you cast scandalous reflections upon the
memory of the man who was my dearest friend!"
"I only tell you what is reported."
"By whom?"
"I have already stated that I am not permitted to answer such a
question."
"Then my enemies--some unknown and secret enemies--have placed me in
this invidious position!"
"Well--if you like to put it in that way, you may," reflected the police
official, who, with a cold smile, closed the book upon the table, as a
sign that the interview was at an end.