Was his mind occupied by the crack in the library door? For an instant I imagined that he detected Miss Cooper's presence, and my look hardened with a sudden gust of anger; but he immediately answered my question.
"I came for the papers I brought here last evening; they should be returned to the file-case."
"Is Mr. Page wanting them?" I inquired ironically.
"It's not a joking matter, Mr. Swift; it would be decidedly awkward for me to have them misplaced."
"Then I can set your mind at ease: I gave them to Mr. Ulysses White"—naming Mr. Page's lawyer.
Burke elevated the blank expanse where his eyebrows should have been.
"Don't you think," said he, in a tone of hurt surprise, "that you might properly have consulted me before making any disposition of them? I feel, in a way, responsible for all the business affairs which Mr. Page ordinarily entrusted to me."
"I daresay I might have done so," returned I, indifferently, "if you had been present when I handed them to Mr. White. Don't you regard them as being safe with him?"
"To be sure—they could n't be in safer hands. But it is the implication that I no longer command or deserve the confidence—"
"Pooh!" I unceremoniously cut in. "Burke, if I were you, I 'd be a little careful how I emphasized an attitude of innocence toward this affair. There 's no implication or innuendo about; I 'm only too willing to tell you frankly that I am something more than suspicious of you. I know that you have n't told everything you might about this murder. You 're lucky that I have n't run you in before this. Is that plain enough?"