"What does it mean to you?" asked Kennedy, changing front.
Norton hesitated. "Well," he replied, "it means to me, I suppose, what it means to any one who stops to think. If Lockwood was there, he got the dagger. If he had the dagger—it was he who used it!"
The inference was so strong that Craig could not deny it. Whether it was his opinion or not was another matter.
"It fits in with other facts, too," continued Norton. "For instance, it was Lockwood who discovered the body of Mendoza."
"But the elevator boy took Lockwood up himself," objected Craig, more for the sake of promoting the discussion than to combat Norton.
"Yes—when he 'discovered' the thing. But it must have been done long before. Who knows? He may have entered. The deed might have been done. He may have left. No one saw him come or go. What then more likely to cover himself up than to return when he knew that his entrance would be known, and find the thing himself?"
Norton's reasoning was clever and plausible. Yet Kennedy scarcely nodded his head, one way or the other.
"You were acquainted with Lockwood?" he asked finally. "I mean to say, of course, before this affair."
"Yes, I met him in Lima just as I was starting out on my expedition. He was preparing to come to New York."
"What did you think of him then?"