Just how far he could win that cooperation was the problem which confronted him now, and he waited anxiously for the return of Father Layonne, listening for the sound of his footsteps in the outer hall.  If, after all, that inspirational thought of last night came to nothing, if Fingers should fail him—­

He shrugged his shoulders.  If that happened, he could see no other chance.  He would have to go on and take his medicine at the hands of a jury.  But if Fingers played up to the game—­

He looked out on the river again, and again it was the river that seemed to answer him.  If Fingers played with him, they would beat Kedsty and the whole of N Division!  And in winning he would prove out the greatest psychological experiment he had ever dared to make.  The magnitude of the thing, when he stopped to think of it, was a little appalling, but his faith was equally large.  He did not consider his philosophy at all supernatural.  He had brought it down to the level of the average man and woman.

He believed that every man and woman possessed a subliminal consciousness which it was possible to rouse to tremendous heights if the right psychological key was found to fit its particular lock, and he believed he possessed the key which fitted the deeply-buried and long-hidden thing in Dirty Fingers’ remarkable brain.  Because he believed in this metaphysics which he had not read out of Aristotle, he had faith that Fingers would prove his salvation.  He felt growing in him stronger than ever a strange kind of elation.  He felt better physically than last night.  The few minutes of strenuous action in which he had half killed Mercer had been a pretty good test, he told himself.  It had left no bad effect, and he need no longer fear the reopening of his wound.

A dozen times he had heard a far door open and close.  Now he heard it again, and a few moments later it was followed by a sound which drew a low cry of satisfaction from him.  Dirty Fingers, because of overweight and lack of exercise, had what he called an “asthmatic wind,” and it was this strenuous working of his lungs that announced his approach to Kent.  His dog was also afflicted and for the same reasons, so that when they traveled together there was some rivalry between them.

“We’re both bad put out for wind, thank God,” Dirty Fingers would say sometimes.  “It’s a good thing, for if we had more of it, we’d walk farther, and we don’t like walking.”

The dog was with Fingers now, also Father Layonne, and Pelly.  Pelly unlocked the cell, then relocked it again after Fingers and the dog entered.  With a nod and a hopeful look the missioner returned with Pelly to the detachment office.  Fingers wiped his red face with a big handkerchief, gasping deeply for breath.  Togs, his dog, was panting as if he had just finished the race of his life.

“A difficult climb,” wheezed Fingers.  “A most difficult climb.”