"
Rolfe departed, to do his chief's bidding, a little crestfallen. He was
at first inclined to think that he had made a bit of a fool of himself in
his desire to prove to Inspector Chippenfield that he had been hoodwinked
by Hill into arresting Birchill. But that night, as he sat in his bedroom
smoking a quiet pipe, and reviewing this latest phase of the puzzling
case, the earlier doubts which had assailed him on first learning of
Hill's flight recurred to him with increasing force. If Hill were
innocent he would have been more likely to seek police protection before
flight. Hill's flight was hardly the action of an innocent man. It
pointed more to a guilty fear of his own skin, now that the man he had
accused of the murder was free to seek vengeance. Chippenfield's theory
seemed plausible enough at first sight, but Rolfe now recalled that he
knew nothing of the missing letters and Hill's midnight visit to
Riversbrook to recover them. Rolfe had concealed that episode from his
superior officer because he lacked the courage to reveal to him how he
had been hoodwinked by Mrs. Holymead's fainting fit the morning he was
conducting his official inquiry at Riversbrook into the murder.
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