"Why, I couldn't," Hatch protested. "I couldn't," he repeated.
"Why?"
"Well, because—because he's not that sort of man," explained the reporter. "I've known him for years, personally and by reputation."
"Was he a particular friend of yours in college?"
"No, not an intimate, but he was in my class—and he's a whacking, jam-up, ace-high football player." That squared everything.
"Do you now believe him guilty?" insisted the scientist.
"I can't believe anything else—and yet I'd stake my life on his honesty."
"And Miss Meredith?"
The reporter was reaching the explosive point. He had seen and talked to Miss Meredith, you know.
"It's perfectly asinine to suppose that she had anything to do with either theft, don't you think?"