Page:The Viaduct Murder (1926).pdf/197

forefinger of his right hand on the top of the book. I should say he was a man of about Gordon's height."

"Unmasked!" cried Gordon, recoiling dramatically. "Send for the Black Maria; I'll go quiet."

"I was about to observe, my dear Gordon, that I attach no suspicion to you, because you have unusually long arms for your height. But this man, on the usual calculations, would be about your height, or a little smaller. Now, I wonder if he poked about in the other shelves at all? Most people, when they are looking for a book, take out one or two of the other books in mere inadvertent curiosity. Extraordinary the fascination that books have. I am told that Whitewell, at Oxford, loses twenty pounds' worth of books a year by theft, as the result of letting people prowl round his shop at their pleasure. Ah! Reeves, your room is an excellent subject for the detective."

"Why mine, particularly?"

"Because you are a man of such tidy habits."

"Tidy!" protested Gordon. "Look at those letters on the table."

"Pernickety would perhaps have been the just word. You are the sort of man who cannot leave a thing lying on the floor, he must pick it up. Consequently, you are the kind of man who always keeps his books on a dead level: some people do, some don't. Now, if this Shakespeare had been protruding like that yesterday, you would have noticed it and pushed it in."