Cummings barely glanced around at me as he said, "I made a suggestion to him; in your presence, as you say, Boyne. I want to know if he carried it out." Then, giving his full attention to Worth, "Did you see your father last night?"
On instinct I blurted,
"For heaven's sake, keep your mouth shut, Worth!"
For a detective that certainly was an incautious speech. Cummings' eye flared suspicion at me, and his voice was a menace.
"You keep out of this, Boyne."
"You tell what's up your sleeve, Cummings," I countered. "This is no witness-stand cross-examination. What you got?"
But Worth answered for him, hotly,
"If Cummings hasn't seventy-two thousand dollars I commissioned him to raise for me, I don't care what he's got."
"And you didn't go to your father for it last night?" Cummings returned to his question. He had moved close to the boy. Barbara stood just where she was when the door opened. Neither paid any attention to her. But she looked at the two men, drawn up with glances clinched, and spoke out suddenly in her clear young voice, as though there was no row on hand,
"Worth was with me last night, you know, Mr. Cummings."