And all the while, it must be remembered, he was in consultation with the astute Luckstone.
"Now what is the inevitable conclusion?
Why, he was courting arrest.
More than that, he was thrusting evidence on us--evidence which would assure his indictment and trial before a petit jury.
"Do you think he was doing it because he wanted to be convicted?
Or do you think Luckstone would have permitted him to leave this evidence lying about except to delude us?
Not for an instant.
"No, chief, Luckstone had some design of his own in thus urging us to the conclusion that Collins was the guilty man.

But I saw the trap which his crafty brain devised.

Luckstone has evidence with which to offset everything we could bring forward against Collins.

He planned to make a colossal fool of the prosecution.

Being absolutely sure of obtaining Collins's acquittal, he wanted us to proceed with our case against him.
He wanted us to commit ourselves to Collins's guilt, to bring Collins to trial, so as to preclude us from proceeding against the real murderer when we ascertained his identity.