"I make my effort in the particular line along which my interest runs at the time," said Ashton-Kirk. "And it is true that the things which I then accept must be more or less solidly supported by facts. But a newspaper casually picked up, a novel read as a time-killer, a spoken word, the gesture of a stranger in the street, or the unstudied action of a child, may convey a something that will stay with us for life."
"And just now," said Fuller, curiously, "you came upon one of these little incidents, a sort of unattached thing, which throws some light upon these," and he pointed to the drawings upon the desk.
Ashton-Kirk nodded; placing the sheets of paper in his coat pocket he closed the desk.
"The police will have little use for these," he said. "Nevertheless, I suppose I had better call Osborne's attention to them."
He spent another half hour in the upper part of the house, but nothing of interest met his eye. Then they descended to the first floor; and as they did so, met Miss Corbin upon the stairs. As she saw them, a startled look came into her face.
"Good-morning," said Ashton-Kirk.
"I did not know that you were here," she said.
"There were a few trifles which I knew only daylight would show us," he returned. "We came more than an hour ago."
"I did not see you go up-stairs," she said; and to Fuller there was a sort of confused resentment in her voice.
"We took the liberty of using the back stairway, that being the nearest," explained the secret agent.