"What can I do?"
"I've been readin' your noospapers, sir. They can't scream like the American eagle. Not much! But I read all about that shootin' case, and I see you were waltzin' round! hey! Mrs. Pethram wasn't far off neither, I guess."
"No; she was companion to Miss Pethram."
"Well, you do surprise me, sir. I s'pose her daughter didn't rise to the fact that Mrs. Belswin was her mamma."
"No; she knew nothing. Mrs. Belswin obtained the situation while Sir Rupert Pethram was absent. When he returned she had an interview with him, and----"
"And he passed in his cheques," concluded Silas, musingly. "Queer thing that, anyhow."
"You don't think," began Dombrain hastily, when Silas interrupted him promptly.
"I don't think at all," he said, rising and putting on his hat. "I don't want to think. Compoundin' a felony isn't in my line nohow."
"But surely, sir----"
Oates, who had turned away, faced round suddenly, with a sharp look in his foxy face which made Dombrain feel somewhat ill at ease.