"Some of these bricks are loose," he said accusingly to Underwood.
"Careless of them," murmured the doctor.
But Selby was in no mood for light conversational thrusts and parries. He was trying to pry up the suspicious bricks with his fingers and breaking his nails on them.
"Hand him a knife, Henry," said Dr. Underwood.
Henry took a clasp-knife from his pocket in the same passive silence that had marked him throughout, and mechanically opened the large blade. It slipped in his hand and Burton saw him wince as the steel shut with a snap upon his finger. But he opened it again and handed it to Selby, who took it with an inarticulate grunt. Burton kept his eye upon the cut finger, but as Henry, after a hasty glance, merely wrapped his handkerchief hard about it, and made no motion to leave the room, he concluded the hurt had not been as serious as it looked.
"'Well, perhaps this can be explained away, too!'" [Page 71.]
Selby was busy trying to pry up one of the bricks with the knife, when suddenly the point snapped.
"You've broken it," exclaimed Henry, who was standing nearest.
"If I have, I'll pay for it," said Selby, with a vicious look. "I pay my debts in full every time. Hello! This looks like something interesting! Well, perhaps this can be explained away, too!" He picked up from the mortar under the loose brick a glittering something and held it up with a triumphant air.