"And the man who killed Phillips killed Crone, too, because Crone knew! That's been the way of it, my lad! And now, then, who's the man ?" I could make no reply to such a question, and presently he went on--talking as much to himself, I think, as to me.
"I wish I knew certain things!" he muttered.

"I wish I knew what Phillips and Gilverthwaite came here for.

I wish I knew if Gilverthwaite ever had any secret dealings with Crone.

I wish--I do wish!--I knew if there has been--if there is--a third man in this Phillips-Gilverthwaite affair who has managed, and is managing, to keep himself in the background.
But--I'll stake my professional reputation on one thing--whoever killed Phillips, killed Abel Crone! It's all of a piece." Now, of course I know now--have known for many a year--that it was at this exact juncture that I made a fatal, a reprehensible mistake in my share of all this business.

It was there, at that exact point, that I ought to have made a clean breast to Mr.Lindsey of everything that I knew.