"Merely that he has no wish to prosecute, and that he has no statement to make."

"Can't you compel him to say something?" I asked.

"No, I can't. That's the infernal difficulty of it. If he doesn't choose to speak, then we must still remain in ignorance, although I feel confident that he knows something of the strange affair up in the wood."

And although I was silent, I shared the Scotch detective's belief.