“Mr. Wing had been for some time at work upon a matter that concerns materially the logging interests of this State. We simply know the fact, for he took no one into his confidence, and was so secretive as to keep the papers about him or in his private safe in his library. Without knowing what the papers contain, we believe if they should fall into the hand of a less scrupulous man than Mr. Wing, they might become dangerous—that is, a source of blackmail. We want to locate those papers, and if possible get possession of them.”
“How far am I warranted in going in order to get hold of them?” he asked.
“Only to locate them and report to me. We will decide then on the safe course.” It was Henry Matthewson who spoke, as always when prompt decision was demanded.
“If they had not already been removed,” said Cranston, “Trafford and McManus have had a chance long since to secure them. I’m like to find them in their hands.”
“Excepting that they might not know their value,” said Charles Matthewson.
Cranston looked at the speaker quizzically.
“I don’t know about your Mr. McManus,” he said. “He’s a lawyer. But as to Trafford, I can answer. If he’s had his hands on those papers, he knows their value.”
“I don’t think,” said Hunter, after the detective had received his instructions and gone, “that my brother would quite approve time spent in discovering Wing’s mother. He doesn’t believe that affair had anything to do with the murder.”
“How can any sensible man?” Henry Matthewson demanded impatiently; “but we don’t know where the enquiry is going to land us nor what help we may want before we’re through. If the judge’s statement is true, this woman has a high position to lose and has great influence with her husband, who holds a strong place politically. It can’t be a matter of much trouble to unravel that part of the affair, and it may give us some one whom we can use advantageously in case of an emergency. It may bring to our aid a force that naturally would be glad to crush us. I’ll take the risk at any rate!”
“All right,” said Hunter. “I’m agreeable, though I thought it proper to state my brother’s position.”