He had to rebut any implication that he had connived with Mcllwraith to spirit Spandrel away, but he could not do so as forcefully as he might wish in case Aertsen felt his own position was threatened. In that event, he would probably defend himself by persuading Sheriff Lanckaert to recommend that Cloisterman be declared persona non grata and sent back to England in disgrace. Cloisterman enjoyed life in Amsterdam and his courtship of the daughter of a wealthy tobacco merchant was at a promising stage. Banishment would spell disaster for all his plans and had to be fended off.The only way he could see of doing this was to tread lightly where the issue of Spandrel's guilt or innocence was concerned. It was now obvious that Zuyler had murdered de Vries and manoeuvred Spandrel into taking the blame. To state that openly, however, would be to question the competence of the Sheriff and hence of his deputy. He refrained from raising the matter, therefore, and hoped that Aertsen would reciprocate his restraint.In this regard, the authorities' failure to recapture Spandrel and to seize his abductor was actually quite satisfactory, since it meant that the issue need not be confronted.
