“Well,” he replied, after a pause. “I believe—in fact, it's an open secret—that the offer of five hundred pounds is made by Dr. Ransford.”
“And—yours?” inquired Glassdale. “Who's at the back of yours—a thousand?”
The solicitor smiled.
“You haven't answered my question, Mr. Glassdale,” he observed. “Can you give any information?”
Glassdale threw his questioner a significant glance.
“Whatever information I might give,” he said, “I'd only give to a principal—the principal. From what I've seen and known of all this, there's more in it than is on the surface. I can tell something. I knew John Braden—who, of course, was John Brake—very well, for some years. Naturally, I was in his confidence.”
“About more than the Saxonsteade jewels, you mean?” asked the solicitor.
“About more than that,” assented Glassdale. “Private matters. I've no doubt I can throw some light—some!—on this Wrychester Paradise affair. But, as I said just now, I'll only deal with the principal. I wouldn't tell you, for instance—as your principal's solicitor.”
The solicitor smiled again.
“Your ideas, Mr. Glassdale, appear to fit in with our principal's,” he remarked. “His instructions—strict instructions—to us are that if anybody turns up who can give any information, it's not to be given to us, but to—himself!”