“Wait a minute. Have you ever thought, Mr Bates, that the feud between your aunt and Mrs Everett is a mighty queer affair?”
“I’ve often thought that, but,—pardon me,—don’t get outside your own proper boundaries!”
“Oh, I’m not. Now, a queer thing, like that feud, has to be taken into consideration.”
“Not in connection with the murder of my Uncle Binney.”
“Maybe not in direct connection, but as a side light. You know the feud has a decided bearing on your affair with Miss Everett.”
“I object to your use of the word ‘affair.’ My friendship with Miss Everett is in spite of, even in defiance of, the feud between her mother and my aunt. I make no secret of it to you, but as I advise you, the matter is confidential. I’m treating you as a fellow-man, Corson, and I don’t want you to abuse my confidence in your fellowship, or your—manliness.”
Corson fidgeted a little and returned, “I’ve got to do my duty, Mr Bates, and part of my duty seems to me to be to tell you that I’m not allowed to observe confidences if they affect my orders.”
“They don’t! How can your investigations of this murder case be affected by my friendship for Miss Everett?”
“They can,—in a way. You see, I know a lot about this feud business. I know how inimical, how full of vicious hatred those two women are, and have been for years. And I know how your recent special interest in Miss Everett has roused the renewed anger of not only your aunt, but her mother——”
“Phew! You do know it all, don’t you?”