"Did your work as a secret service man bring you to this place?"
"Excuse me, but that is my business. If you are working on this case, well and good. But it is not fair to try to steal any of my thunder."
"So far as I am concerned you shall get full credit for what you may do on this case, Mr. Watkins," said Adam Adams stiffly. "But I should like to understand several points."
"About the shoes and the shirtwaist, I suppose. I got the shoes from the house to make certain that some footprints on the bank of the brook had been made by Miss Langmore."
"What about the shirtwaist?"
"It was there when I came, and I left it there, as it did not seem to have much of a connection with the affair."
"Do you think you had a right to tamper with the safe in the library?"
"Considering certain circumstances, which I do not intend just now to disclose to you, I think I had a right."
"Did you take anything from the safe?"
"Not a thing. In fact, I couldn't get the safe open. You must know this, if you saw me a while ago."