"In the first place, are you, or are you not, in Carson's pay? I shall believe your answer because, if you are, I shall offer you a better price to join me, and therefore it will not pay you to lie. But you will not be able to deceive me by pretending to be."
"I am not," I answered.
"Then why did he send you here?"
"I left his employ three days before I met Mme. d'Epernay. If you were in New York you must have seen that I was not there."
"Good. Second, where is Louis d'Epernay?"
"I have never seen the man," I replied.
Leroux glanced incredulously at me.
"Then your meeting with madame was purely an accident?" he inquired. "Your only desire, then, was to get the money you knew she was carrying with her? But how did you know that she was carrying that money?"
I shrugged my shoulders. How was it possible for us to reach an understanding?
"I don't know why you are lying to me," he said. "It is not to your advantage. You must have known that she was in New York; Louis must have told Carson, and he must have told you. And Louis must have told you the secret of the entrance, unless——"