"Do you think that if Dr. Underwood had had such an incriminating piece of evidence he would have kept it instead of destroying it? If he were bound to keep it, do you think he would hide it where the first careless search would bring it to light? If he had so hidden it, would he have invited you here to search? You can't answer yes to those questions, unless you think he is a fit subject for the insane asylum rather than the jail."
Leslie shot him an eloquent glance of thanks. Hadley coughed and looked at Ralston, who was attending to Burton closely.
"I agree with you perfectly," the editor said, and Hadley nodded.
Selby turned a face of deliberate insolence upon Burton. "I don't know who you are, Mr. Burton, but you are here as a friend of Dr. Underwood's, that's clear."
"Yes," said Burton. "I love him for the enemies he has made." Ralston looked at him with evident enjoyment.
"Well, a friend's say-so won't go very far in clearing a man when facts like these stand against him. We're here looking for a thief. If it wasn't Dr. Underwood that held me up, let him explain that handkerchief, found here in his own private room."
And Hadley sagely nodded.
"I can't explain it," said Dr. Underwood. The life had gone out of his voice.
"It explains itself," said Burton impatiently. "Some one is trying to make trouble for Dr. Underwood by a very clumsy and transparent device. Of course," he added, suddenly realizing that he was not taking the politic tone, "of course such an obvious trick might impose on ignorant people, but to three men of more than average intelligence and experience, it must be perfectly clear that the very obviousness of the evidence destroys its value."
Ralston cocked his left eye at him and laughed silently. Hadley nodded, but with some dubiousness. He agreed heartily with that part of the speaker's last sentiment which bore witness to his more than average intelligence, but he had a dizzy feeling that he was getting himself somewhat tangled up as to what he was committed to. But Selby was a Cerberus superior to the temptations of any sop.