"
"Undoubtedly. But that is the way in which well-meaning policemen
destroy valuable evidence. Not that it matters much in this particular
instance; but it might have been a fatal mistake."
"Do you intend to take any active part in this case?" I asked.
"That depends on circumstances. I have collected some evidence, but what
it is worth I don't yet know. Neither do I know whether the police have
observed the same set of facts; but I need not say that I shall do
anything that seems necessary to assist the authorities. That is a
matter of common citizenship."
The inroads made upon our time by the morning's adventures made it
necessary that we should go each about his respective business without
delay; so, after a perfunctory lunch at a tea-shop, we separated, and I
did not see my colleague again until the day's work was finished, and I
turned into our chambers just before dinner-time.
Here I found Thorndyke seated at the table, and evidently full of
business. A microscope stood close by, with a condenser throwing a spot
of light on to a pinch of powder that had been sprinkled on to the
slide; his collecting-box lay open before him, and he was engaged,
rather mysteriously, in squeezing a thick white cement from a tube on to
three little pieces of moulding-wax.
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