He looked once at Wilton's contorted face, and recoiled, the movement confessing at last his lack of faith in the man.
"I will," Hastings answered him, and moved toward the door; "I'll prove it—by the girl's mother."
He threw open the door, and, sure now of holding Sloane's attention, went in search of Mrs. Brace and the sheriff.
XXI
"AMPLE EVIDENCE"
The two men in the library waited a long time for his return. Wilton, elbows on the table, stared straight in front of him, giving no sign of knowledge of the other's presence. Sloane fidgeted with the smelling-salts, emitting now and then long-drawn, tremulous sighs that were his own special vocabulary of dissatisfaction. He spoke once.
"Mute and cringing martyrs!" he said, in suspicious remonstrance. "If he'd say something we could deny! So far, Tom, you're mixed up in——"
"Why can't you wait until he's through?" Wilton objected roughly.