For the second time since Garth had seen him, Twigg’s face lost much of its colour.
“But, God’s truth, Doctor! You’d got no evidence! No jury evidence at all!”
“No. I had not. That was why I had to do it.”
“And suppose something had gone wrong? That house was a ruddy arsenal of firearms! Suppose something had gone wrong?”
“Ask any surgeon, Inspector, what would happen if he began to think of all the things that could go wrong at an operation. No piece of surgery would ever be performed.”
“And you only began accusing him,” said Twigg, “when he started walking towards that door with a gun in his hand? And—”
Twigg stopped. He glowered. He took several paces towards the fireplace, and several steps back. He pushed back his hat.
“Doctor,” he said in a tone of repressed ferocity, “you said several things about me tonight. You said ’em to my face.”
Instinctively Garth stiffened.
“Yes? And if I did?”
“We’ll never see eye to eye, you know. And you’ll never make a good copper in all your born days. But, God’s truth! You might offer me that cigarette-case again, Doctor. You’re not so bad yourself.”
About the Author
John Dickson Carr (1906–1977) was one of the most popular authors of Golden Age British-style detective novels. Born in Pennsylvania and the son of a US congressman, Carr graduated from Haverford College in 1929. Soon thereafter, he moved to England where he married an Englishwoman and began his mystery-writing career. In 1948, he returned to the US as an internationally known author. Carr received the Mystery Writers of America’s highest honor, the Grand Master Award, and was one of the few Americans ever admitted into the prestigious, but almost exclusively British, Detection Club.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1961 by John Dickson Carr
Copyright © renewed 1989 by Clarice M. Carr, Julia McNiven, Mary B. Howes and Bonita Marie Cron
Cover design by Jason Gabbert
978-1-4804-7279-2
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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