"Whatever they are, you have been playing them and Fluette against each other. Burke, I suppose you can't help lying; it comes easier for you than telling the truth. You know that those fellows managed to steal the bar of soap—"
"While you were watching it," he interpolated.
"—and," I went on, ignoring the thrust, "they notified you and Fluette of the fact Friday morning."
"Yes," he said slowly, after a pause, "they told us they had secured the bar of soap."
"If that's so," I fixed him with a level look, "why did the intelligence floor you so?"
"You draw your conclusions so admirably that you ought to be able to supply the answer to that question yourself."
"I 'm not here for that purpose,"—curtly. "Come, speak up."
He sat for a long while silent; then,—
"Well," said he, "it would come as a shock to any man to be bluntly told that he had just been deprived of a fortune. Mr. Fluette, confident that he was within a step of securing the stone, blamed me with being the cause of his disappointment."
The fellow's demeanor angered me beyond endurance.