‘Stupid fellows,’ said the doctor.
‘You are not flattering to me, but let us come to business. How much?’
‘I need hardly ask,’ said the doctor, ‘it would be an insult to your intelligence, whether you have taken the usual precautions?’
Merton, whose chair was tilted, threw himself violently backwards, upsetting his chair, and then scrambled nimbly to his feet. Between him and the table yawned a square black hole of unknown depth.
‘Hardly fair, Dr. Melville,’ said he, picking up the chair, and placing it on the carpet, ‘besides, I have taken the ordinary precautions. The house is surrounded—Ned Mahony’s lambs—the usual statement is in the safe of a friend. We must really come to the point. Time is flying,’ and he looked at his watch. ‘I can give you twenty minutes.’
‘Have you anything in the way of terms to propose?’ asked the doctor, filling his pipe.
‘Well, first, absolute secrecy. I alone know the state of the case.’
‘Has Mr. Logan no guess?’
‘Not the faintest suspicion. The detectives, when I left Kirkburn, had not even found the trap door, you
understand. You hit on its discovery through knowing the priest’s hole at Oxburgh Hall, I suppose?’