“But you denied having a rose, Louis. Now you're asking who took it away. Once again, let me advise you to tell the truth. You're not at all successful in telling falsehoods. Now answer me this: When you came home Tuesday night, did you or did you not walk around the house past the office window?”
“No, sir. I walked around the other side. I—”
“Stop, Louis! You're not telling the truth. You did walk around by the office, and you dropped your transfer there. It never blew all around the house, as you have said it did.”
A look of dogged obstinacy came into the man's eyes, but he did not look at me. He shifted his gaze uneasily, as he repeated almost in a singsong way, “go round the other side of the house.”
It was a sort of deadlock. Without a witness to the fact, I could not prove that he had gone by the office windows, though I was sure he had.
But help came from an unexpected quarter.
Elsa had been very quiet during the foregoing conversation, but now she spoke up suddenly, and said: “He did go round by the office, Mr. Burroughs, and I saw him.”
I half expected to see Louis turn on the girl in a rage, but the effect of her speech on him was quite the reverse. He almost collapsed; he trembled and turned white, and though he tried to speak, he made no sound. Surely this man was too cowardly for a criminal; but I must learn the secret of his knowledge.
“Tell me about it, Elsa,” I said, quietly.
“I was looking out at my window, sir, at the back of the house; and I saw Louis come around the house, and he came around by the office side.”