"Was that according to the Criminal Code? Was it, Kent?"

"Not exactly. But, coming from the S.O.D., it was law."

"And I obeyed it," grunted the staff-sergeant. "And if you could
have seen McTrigger! When I told him he was free, and unlocked his
cell, he came out of it gropingly, like a blind man. And he would
go no farther than the Inspector's office. He said he would wait
there for him."

"And Kedsty?"

O'Connor jumped from his chair and began thumping back and forth
across the room again. "Followed the girl," he exploded. "He
couldn't have done anything else. He lied to me about Cardigan.
There wouldn't be anything mysterious about it if he wasn't sixty
and she less than twenty. She was pretty enough! But it wasn't her
beauty that made him turn white there in the path. Not on your
life it wasn't! I tell you he aged ten years in as many seconds.
There was something in that girl's eyes more terrifying to him
than a leveled gun, and after he'd looked into them, his first
thought was of McTrigger, the man you're saving from the hangman.
It's queer, Kent. The whole business is queer. And the queerest of
it all is your confession."

"Yes, it's all very funny," agreed Kent. "That's what I've been
telling myself right along, old man. You see, a little thing like
a bullet changed it all. For if the bullet hadn't got me, I assure
you I wouldn't have given Kedsty that confession, and an innocent
man would have been hanged. As it is, Kedsty is shocked,