“Mr. Stone,” said Blake, sharply, “I want you to answer a few questions for the benefit of Miss West. First of all, you were employed by Miss West on a piece of detective work, were you not?”
“I was,” said Mr. Stone, avoiding Katherine’s eye.
“And the nature of your employment was to try to discover evidence of an alleged conspiracy against the city on my part?”
“It was.”
“And you made to her certain reports?”
“I did.”
“Let me inform you that she has used those reports as the basis of a libellous story which she is about to print. Now answer me, did you give her any real evidence that would stand the test of a court room?”
Mr. Stone gazed at the ceiling.
“My statements to her were mere surmises,” he said with the glibness of a rehearsed answer. “Nothing but conjecture—no evidence at all.”
“What is your present belief concerning these conjectures?”