"Who dares accuse me of such an act?" he demanded. "Show him to me. Let me stand face to face with him and ask him his reasons for suspecting me. Is it you, Walker?"
"It is both of us," answered the second clerk.
"Do you suspect me because you saw me trying to open the safe day before yesterday?" asked George, still speaking very calmly.
"Why, Ackerman, any sane boy would be willing to acknowledge that that was a very suspicious circumstance," replied Walker.
"Didn't you assure me that the thing had been explained to your entire satisfaction? I tell you in Murray's presence, as I told you once before, that he handed me the key, gave me the combination and sat there on his high stool and watched me while I was at work on the safe. Murray is that so or not?"
The chief clerk's face was a sight to behold. He was white to the lips and trembling so violently in every limb that he was obliged to place his hand against the bulkhead for support. He opened his mouth as if he were about to speak, but no words came forth.
"Why don't you deny it to him as you did to me?" demanded Walker, while both he and the captain looked at the chief clerk in astonishment.
"I am too angry to say anything," replied Murray.
George was thunderstruck. "Am I to understand that you deny it?" he cried, as soon as he could speak.
"I do, most emphatically," answered Murray, whose courage began to return to him as soon as he heard the sound of his own voice. "There's not a word of truth in it."