Underwood groaned, and Leslie promptly patted his shoulder.
"Poor papa, does it hurt?"
"Yes," he sputtered.
Then he pulled himself together and turned again to Burton. "Henry has an unfortunate way of provoking antagonism. But all this has no more to do with this robbery than it has to do with the spots on the sun. Even Selby doesn't accuse Henry of holding him up. I am the target of his attacks, thank Heaven."
"Why this pious gratitude?"
"I can stand it better than Henry. Possibly you did not understand Selby's slur. It has been the tragedy of Henry's life that he crippled Ben Bussey. It was ten years ago that it happened. They had a tussle. Ben was the older, but Henry was larger and stronger, and he was in a violent temper. He threw Ben in such a way that his spine was permanently injured. But the effect on Henry was almost equally serious. His hand has been against friend and foe alike. I don't consider that he was responsible for what happened here a few years later."
"Of course not. He had nothing to do with it," said Leslie. Burton saw that she had missed the significance of the doctor's remark,--and he was glad she had. As the doctor said, that matter had nothing to do with the robbery, and Henry was not implicated in the present trouble. He turned to the doctor. "I don't want to force myself upon you in the character of a pushing Perseus, but if you have no objections, I should like to spend the night in this room."
The doctor looked at him with the countenance of a chess player who is looking several moves ahead. "Why?" he asked.
"I have an idea that the person who made such elaborate preparations for your committee may be curious to learn how much of his cache was unearthed, and, knowing that the committee has been here, may come before morning to take a look. I'd like to receive him properly. I can't at this moment imagine anything that would give me more unalloyed pleasure. As no one knows of my being here, I hope the gentleman may not yet have been put upon his guard. It is evident that he has been able to get into this room before, and possibly he might try again."
"But you won't be comfortable here," protested Leslie.