There was a pause, which somehow seemed to make the room cold. The lawyer opened his eyes wide, jerking his head towards Dr. Fell.
"I said, `not any longer,' " the doctor repeated, raising his voice slightly "Martin was the last of the direct line. It's all over. The trust, or the curse, or whatever you care to call it, is done with for ever; and for that part of it I can say, thank God… Anyhow, it needn't be a mystery any longer. If you were up there this morning, you know that something has been taken from the safe.
"How do you know that?" demanded Payne, sticking out his neck.
"I'm not trying to be cute," the doctor responded, wearily. "And I wish you wouldn't try to he. either. In any case, if you want to help justice, you'd better tell us the whole story of your trust. We shall never know the truth about Martin's murder unless we know that. Go on, Sir Benjamin. I hate to keep butting in like this."
"That's the position exactly," said Sir Benjamin. "You'll withhold no evidence, sir. That is, unless you want to be held as a material witness."
Payne looked from one to the other of them. He had had an easy time of it, you felt, up to now. Few people had crossed him or sat upon him. He was wildly trying to keep his cool dignity, like a man striving to manage a sailboat in a high wind.
"I will tell you as much as I think fit," he said with an effort, "and no more. What do you want to know?"
"Thank you," said the chief constable, drily. "First, you kept the keys to the Governor's Room, did you not?"
"I did."
"How many keys were there?"