Harry Bartlett lost no time in acquainting Colonel Ashley with the admission made by Captain Poland.
“So the wind is veering,” the detective murmured. “I shall watch him. I wondered why he didn't answer my letters. Now we must see LeGrand Blossom.”
“I'll come with you,” offered Bartlett. “I want to see this thing through now. Shall we tell her?” and he motioned toward Viola's room.
“Not now. We'll see Blossom first.”
If the head clerk was perturbed at all by the visit to the office of Colonel Ashley and Harry Bartlett, he did not disclose it. He welcomed the two visitors, and took them to his private room.
Colonel Ashley went bluntly into the business in hand.
“Have you any papers to show that Captain Poland acknowledged the receipt of the fifteen thousand dollars owed to him by Mr. Carwell?”
“I have not,” was the frank answer. “I have been searching for something to prove that the debt was paid, as I knew of its contraction. It was not canceled as far as I can find.”
“Yet Captain Poland says it was paid,” said Bartlett, “and that he sent you the receipt.”
“I never got it!” insisted LeGrand Blossom. Harry Bartlett and Colonel Ashley looked at one another, and then the detective, with an effort at cheerfulness which he did not feel, said: