“It isn’t an idle threat, and you can be held for further inquiry, if I say so.”
“You won’t say so, and anyway I won’t say where I was last night. But I will say I was up to no harm, and had no hand in the death of Sir Herbert Binney.”
“I don’t, as yet, think you did; but let me remark that if you were implicated in the matter you would act and speak just as you do now. You would, of course, asseverate your innocence——”
“Of course I should. So, now, Mr Smarty-Cat, what are you going to do about it?”
Julie’s eyes snapped with anger that seemed almost vicious, and she tossed her head independently, while the other girls showed little or no sympathy. She was not a favorite with her fellow-workers; they called her stuck-up, and she not only refused to take them into her confidence as to her amusements and entertainments, but she often whetted their curiosity by mysterious hints of grand doings of which she never told them definitely.
She lived in herself during her hours on duty, and even in the rest room she was never chummy or chatty like the rest.
Wherefore, there were surprised glances and nodding heads in her direction, and Daisy Lee sniffed openly.
“Huh,” she said, “Julie Baxter, you’re too smart. You were more friendly with Sir Binney than any of us. He gave you twice the candy he did any one else, and I know you’ve been out to dinner with him!”
“I have not!” declared Julie, but a flush on her cheeks and a quiver of her eyelids left room for doubt as to her truthfulness.
“Also,” and Corson flung this at her, “also, on the paper was written ‘get B-a-’ and also, we’ve been told that the dying man tried to articulate a name beginning with J!”