"Apparently?"
"Yes. Of course I could not tell exactly, since the wound was not easily examined."
"I see. Then you have not seen the knife—the dagger that found the life of Victoria Vane?"
"Certainly not."
"And yet it was found in your room."
"Impossible!"
"It is true. That evidence alone might hang you."
"My soul! what does, what can this mean?" groaned the young engineer, sinking back to the rough blanket, weak as a rag under the revelation of this strange man.
"It means that a plot exists for your destruction, and the elevation of another," answered Hiram Shanks, slowly and with deliberation. "Doubtless your journey last night was a part of the plot. I confess that some things puzzle me, yet I am assured that your death is necessary to the successful issue of a plot."
"I cannot understand it."