"If you were mixed up in that affair," he said, "and if I remain
here when my evidence is needed, I become an accomplice."
"Only if you remain here voluntarily," the Prince reminded him
cheerfully. "Remember that and be comforted. No effort that you
could make now would bring you into touch with Mr. Inspector
Jacks until I am quite prepared. So you see, my dear doctor, that
you have nothing with which to reproach yourself. I will not
insult you," he continued, "by suggesting that a reward of fifty
pounds could possibly have influenced your attitude. If you have
suffered your mind to dwell upon it for a single moment, try and
remember the relative unimportance of such an amount when
compared with a thousand guineas."
The doctor moved to the window and back again.
"Supposing," he said, "I decline to remain here? Supposing I say
that, believing you now to have a guilty knowledge of this
murder, I repudiate our bargain? Supposing I say that I will have
nothing more to do with your thousand guineas,--that I will leave
this house?"
"Then we come to close quarters," the Prince answered, "and you
force me to tell you in plain words that, until I am ready for
you to leave it, you are as much a prisoner in this room as
though the keys of the strongest fortress in Europe were turned
upon you. I have told you this before. I thought that we
perfectly understood one another."
"I did not understand," the doctor protested. "I knew that there
was trouble, but I did not know that it was this!"
"The fact of your knowing or not knowing makes no difference,"
the Prince answered.
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