"Go on," she said in a hard voice as he paused.
"When I read it I——"
Her eyes disconcerted him; he could not bring himself to say to her face he suspected her.
"When you read it—you believed it was mine," she said steadily.
"For the moment, yes; I had no alternative. Then—later—I was uncertain."
"Uncertain of what?"
"Uncertain whether it was yours. At first I intended to hand it over to Brennan, as Durham was too ill to understand. Of course, that would have made it public, and you—well, you would have been suspected, at the least, of complicity in the robbery. I could not believe that of you—could not, even with this in my possession. I came back to Waroona in the morning intending to see you and hear what explanation you had to offer before taking any further steps. But you were not at the bank, and when I got there I was done up."
The steady look in her eyes never changed.
"Go on," she repeated.
"I ask you now—what explanation have you to offer?"