Evelyn and I looked at each other, as though at a private revelation which had just startled us.
"I wonder!" said Evelyn, acting at the very top of her form. "Could it be… that car you sold"
"And," I said, "he paid me in bundles of notes. New notes"
We did not offer to explain to him; we threw sentences at each other as though we were solving a problem of our own, growing more and more excited over it without the matter being of the least concern to anyone else. Then Evelyn, with a look well below freezing, broke off and gave him a glance. You could see that it had shaken his reassurance.
"Both of us seem to have made a mistake," she told him. "However, please don't let it worry you. There is plenty of perfectly good money in my handbag in the other room."
Now he was looking at our grimy state, and his eye wandered across to the window. Then he made his decision. He volplaned down into honest speech, and I liked him for it.
"Look here," he said, "if I'm making a ruddy fool of myself, I'll find it out fast enough. But I think you're a couple of crooks, and I think you've been up to something here tonight. Got any objection to being searched?"
"Yes."
Nodding and bracing himself, he took the revolver out of his pocket. Again his film-training came to his assistance. "Get 'em up," he said.
"Nonsense," cried Evelyn.