“Well,” Dail blurted, “consider the other circumstances. Here we were on a boat on the high seas. You’re aboard the ship. Moar’s aboard the ship, traveling under an assumed name. You come to me and offer to return twenty thousand dollars—”
“I beg your pardon,” Mason interrupted. “I didn’t make any offer. I said I was asking questions. I wanted that specifically understood.”
“Well, it amounts to the same thing,” Dail insisted.
Mason said, “Speaking as a lawyer, I beg to differ with you. But you’re doing the talking.”
“I didn’t come here to argue,” Dail said. “I appreciate I’m in an embarrassing predicament if Mrs. Moar cares to take advantage of it.”
“She does,” Mason told him conversationally.
“You mean she’s going to sue me?”
“Exactly.”
“Well,” Dail said, “if you want to get technical about it. Mason, I didn’t accuse her of anything, I accused her husband, who is now dead.”
“You said, however, that the money which was found in her possession was money which had been embezzled from the Products Refining Company. It now appears that your relative was responsible for that embezzlement. Moar was innocent.”