“Carl’s gun,” she said. “It’s gone.”
“Now let’s get this straight,” Mason said. “You and Carl were going to have a showdown?”
“Yes.”
“Did you tell him what you wanted to talk with him about?”
“I told him that I wasn’t going to stand for a lot of vague generalities any longer; that I wanted to know exactly where he obtained that money, and that I wanted him to turn it over to me.”
“What did he say?”
“He said we’d talk it over later.”
“He wouldn’t discuss it then?”
“No. You see, just as we were finishing dinner, a bellboy handed him a note. Carl said he had to see a man on some business. That broke up our little dinner party. Carl and I came to the stateroom. I told him I was going to have things out with him, that for Belle’s sake I wanted that money. He said he’d be back within five minutes, but he simply had to see someone on a matter of the greatest importance.”
“There was a gun in that drawer?”