Thirty-three BATTLE EXPLAINS

Superintendent¹ Battle settled down to explain. He spoke² comfortably andcosily.
“I didn’t suspect him myself for a long time. The first hint of it I had waswhen I heard what Mr. Devereux’s last words had been. Naturally, youtook them to mean that Mr. Devereux was trying to send word to Mr.
Thesiger that the Seven Dials had killed him. That’s what the wordsseemed to mean on their face value. But of course I knew that thatcouldn’t be so. It was the Seven Dials that Mr. Devereux wanted told—andwhat he wanted them told was something about Mr. Jimmy Thesiger.
“The thing seemed incredible, because Mr. Devereux and Mr. Thesigerwere close friends. But I remembered something else—that these theftsmust have been committed by someone who was absolutely in the know.
Someone, who, if not in the Foreign Office himself, was in the way of hear-ing all its chitchat. And I found it very hard to find out where Mr. Thesigergot his money. The income his father left him was a small one, yet he wasable to live at a most expensive rate. Where did the money come from?
“I knew that Mr. Wade³ had been very excited by something that he hadfound out. He was quite sure that he was on the right track. He didn’t con-fide in anyone about what he thought that track was, but he did say some-thing to Mr. Devereux about being on the point of making sure. That wasjust before they both went down to Chimneys for that weekend. As youknow, Mr. Wade died there—apparently⁴ from an overdose of a sleepingdraught. It seemed straightforward⁵ enough, but Mr. Devereux did not ac-cept that explanation for a minute. He was convinced that Mr. Wade hadbeen very cleverly put out of the way and that someone in the house mustactually be the criminal we were all after. He came, I think, very near con-fiding in Mr. Thesiger, for he certainly had no suspicions of him at thatmoment. But something held him back.
“Then he did a rather curious thing. He arranged seven clocks upon themantelpiece, throwing away the eighth. It was meant as a symbol that theSeven Dials would revenge the death of one of their members—and hewatched eagerly to see if anyone betrayed themselves or showed signs ofperturbation.”

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