"You are very good. For I know you don't believe he is here."
"No, I don't."
"But where, then, can he be?"
"You have asked me that before. This time I will answer that he is probably where he intended to be when he left here early yesterday morning—after ridding himself of Eliot and Dodd."
"You think he planned it. But why should he have been so secret about it? No one could have prevented him from taking a journey if he wished to take one."
"You would have prevented it; you wouldn't have thought him strong enough."
"That would not have deterred him."
"You're right, it wouldn't. Probably he didn't care even to explain that he did not intend to be deterred, Lanse was never fond of explanations."
"I am not at all convinced."
"I didn't expect to convince you. You asked me, and I had to say something."