The other considered. "You mean it is in a safe place?"
"One would naturally take care of such a document."
"You did not have any such paper at Strathorn."
"No?" John Steele smiled but he did not feel like smiling. "Not there certainly."
"I mean no such paper existed then, or you would have taken advantage of it."
John Steele did not answer; he looked at the drawer. The affidavit was not there; but something else was.
"You are resourceful, that is all."
Lord Ronsdale had now quite recovered himself; he sank back into his chair. "You have, out of fancy, constructed a libelous theory; one that you can not prove; one that you would be laughed at for advancing. A cock-and-bull story about a witness who was not a witness; a paper that doesn't exist, that never existed."
A sound at the door caused him to turn sharply; a knocking had passed unheeded. The door opened, closed. Mr. Gillett, a troubled, perturbed look on his face, stood now just within. "Your lordship!"
"Well?" the nobleman's manner was peremptory.