Good heavens, Mr. Persicue, you are not seriously suggesting that Mr. Tremaine should take the fall for us!?

I'm sorry, I did not make myself plain, I do not for a minute believe that we could, or should, blame these events on Mr. Tremaine, after all, he is my employee, and I am honour bound to protect his interests. Certainly he could not be made to take the blame in a way which exonerated us anyway. I was merely trying to suggest that if he did let things slip under questioning and came out with the truth, then perhaps he might in so doing create such an impression that he would not be regarded as a credible witness if we were to deny his story. besides, it is plain that he had been drinking rather heavily the day before, many witnesses could attest to that, plus the fact that only his clothes were singed, ostensibly while running some errand for me, and while no one was watching. These facts may come to light anyway it now occurs to me, and make him suspect even if our story is believed...in which case the asylum might be the kindest fate for him, and surely we have the means to rescue him from thence at our leisure...all we need is for him to smuggle out some artifact unique to his cell. This same reasoning applies to any of us who might be incarcerated anywhere for any reason of course, and we should be ready to use it whenever we feel that playing along is no longer likely to avert more serious consequences.

But he is by far less involved than are we-- If it is so then I must to object-- destructions of churches and congregations, maybe, intent to deceive authorities, maybe, murder and mayhem and fire and death and... all that... maybe. But this one, I cannot accept.

I accept that he is by far more innocent than the rest of us in this regard, but even if we strive to prevent it, it is so often the case that those but lightly associated with a crime become more ensnared than the hardened criminals who plotted it. We must be prepared to manage the failure of our alibis by stages. or else the entire edifice may crumble. Identifying weak links now is the best way of avoiding having us build on shifting sands.

(n.b., that last sentence was really a quote from one of Uncle Jonah's essays, I thought the blend of metaphors quite apt for our situation though.)

AKP

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