第11章

The thing's becoming indecent.And dangerous, too, for us, here.'

Mr Vladimir stopped again for a moment.

`What do you mean?'

`The prosecution of this Verloc will demonstrate to the public both the danger and the indecency.'

`Nobody will believe what a man of that sort says,' said Mr Vladimir, contemptuously.

`The wealth and precision of detail will carry conviction to the great mass of the public,' advanced the Assistant Commissioner gently.

`So that is seriously what you mean to do.'

`We've got the man; we have no choice.'

`You will be only feeding up the lying spirit of these revolutionary scoundrels,' Mr Vladimir protested.`What do you want to make a scandal for? - from morality - or what?'

Mr Vladimir's anxiety was obvious.The Assistant Commissioner, having ascertained in this way that there must be some truth in the summary statements of Mr Verloc, said indifferently:

`There's a practical side, too.We have really enough to do to look after the genuine article.You can't say we are not effective.But we don't intend to let ourselves be bothered by shams under any pretext whatever.'

Mr Vladimir's tone became lofty.

`For my part, I can't share your view.It is selfish.My sentiments for my own country cannot be doubted; but I've always felt that we ought to be good Europeans besides - I mean governments and men.'

`Yes,' said the Assistant Commissioner simply.`Only you look at Europe from its other end.But,' he went on in a good-natured tone, `the foreign governments cannot complain of the inefficiency of our police.Look at this outrage; a case specially difficult to trace inasmuch as it was a sham.In less than twelve hours we have established the identity of a man literally blown to shreds, have found the organizer of the attempt, and have had a glimpse of the inciter behind him.And we could have gone further;only we stopped at the limits of our territory.'

`So this instructive crime was planned abroad,' Mr Vladimir said, quickly.

`You admit it was planned abroad?'

`Theoretically.Theoretically only, on foreign territory; abroad only by a fiction,' said the Assistant Commissioner, alluding to the character of Embassies which are supposed to be part and parcel of the country to which they belong.`But that's a detail.I talked to you of this business because it's your government that grumbles most at our police.You see that we are not so bad.I wanted particularly to tell you of our success.'

`I'm sure I'm very grateful,' muttered Mr Vladimir through his teeth.

`We can put our finger on every anarchist here,' went on the Assistant Commissioner, as though he were quoting Chief Inspector Heat.`All that's wanted now is to do away with the agent provocateur to make everything safe.'

Mr Vladimir held up his hand to a passing hansom.

`You're not going in here,' remarked the Assistant Commissioner, looking at a building of noble proportions and hospitable aspect, with the light of a great hall falling through its glass doors on a broad flight of steps.

But Mr Vladimir, sitting, stony-eyed, inside the hansom, drove off without a word.

The Assistant Commissioner himself did not turn into the noble building.

It was the Explorers' Club.The thought passed through his mind that Mr Vladimir, honorary member, would not be seen very often there in the future.

He looked at his watch.It was only half past ten.He had had a very full evening.