Inspector Badger was thunderstruck.  Also he was visibly annoyed.  The salt which Mr. Jellicoe had so adroitly sprinkled on the constabulary tail appeared to develop irritating properties, for when Thorndyke had given him a brief outline of the facts he stuck his hands in his pockets and exclaimed gloomily: 

“Well, I’m hanged!  And to think of all the time and trouble I’ve spent on those damned bones!  I suppose they were just a plant?”

“Don’t let us disparage them,” said Thorndyke.  “They have played a useful part.  They represent the inevitable mistake that every criminal makes sooner or later.  The murderer will always do a little too much.  If he would only lie low and let well alone, the detective might whistle for a clue.  But it is time we were starting.”

“Are we all going?” asked the inspector, looking at me in particular with no very gracious recognition.

“We will all come with you,” said Thorndyke; “but you will, naturally, make the arrest in the way that seems best to you.”

“It’s a regular procession,” grumbled the inspector; but he made no more definite objection, and we started forth on our quest.

The distance from the Temple to Lincoln’s Inn is not great.  In five minutes we were at the gateway in Chancery Lane, and a couple of minutes later saw us gathered round the threshold of the stately old house in New Square.

“Seems to be a light in the first floor front,” said Badger.  “You’d better move away before I ring the bell.”

But the precaution was unnecessary.  As the inspector advanced to the bell-pull a head was thrust out of the open window immediately above the street door.

“Who are you?” inquired the owner of the head in a voice which I recognised as that of Mr. Jellicoe.

“I am Inspector Badger, of the Criminal Investigation Department.  I wish to see Mr. Arthur Jellicoe.”

“Then look at me.  I am Mr. Arthur Jellicoe.”

“I hold a warrant for your arrest, Mr. Jellicoe.  You are charged with the murder of Mr. John Bellingham, whose body has just been discovered in the British Museum.”

“By whom?”

“By Doctor Thorndyke.”

“Indeed,” said Mr. Jellicoe.  “Is he here?”

“Yes.”

“Ha!  And you wish to arrest me, I presume?”

“Yes.  That is what I am here for.”

“Well, I will agree to surrender myself subject to certain conditions.”

“I can’t make any conditions, Mr. Jellicoe.”

“No.  I will make them, and you will accept them.  Otherwise you will not arrest me.”

“It’s no use for you to talk like that,” said Badger.  “If you don’t let me in I shall have to break in.  And I may as well tell you,” he added mendaciously, “that the house is surrounded.”

“You may accept my assurance,” Mr. Jellicoe replied calmly, “that you will not arrest me if you do not accept my conditions.”