"But why should any one wish to?" protested the doctor uncomfortably.
"The heart is deceitful and wicked. Your faith in human nature does you honor, but I am afraid it has also got you into trouble. However, we'll hope that it may also serve to put an end to the trouble. When we find the man who hid these claptrap stage properties in here, we will find the man who knows something about the robbery. It seems to me a fair guess that he may come back to this room tonight to investigate; but in any event there isn't anything else I can do tonight, and it will flatter my sense of importance to feel that I am trying to do something. Now, if I may, I will assist you to your room, and then say good night."
Leslie, who had been waiting beside her father, rose. "I hope you won't be too uncomfortable," she said.
"My dear," her father interrupted, "I recognize in Mr. Burton the type that would rather be right than comfortable. We are in his hands, and we may as well accept the situation gracefully. The couch isn't a bad one, Burton. I have frequently spent the night here when I have come in late. Yonder door leads to a lavatory. And I hope you may not be disturbed."
Burton laughed. He had all the eagerness of the amateur. "I'm hoping that I may be! Now if you'll lean on my shoulder and pilot the way, I'll take you to your room."
The doctor accepted his assistance with a whimsical recognition of the curiousness of the situation. "That I should be putting myself and my affairs into your hands in this way is probably strange, but more strangely I can't make it seem strange," he said, when Burton left him.
When Burton came downstairs, Leslie was waiting for him.
"I want to thank you," she said impulsively.
"I haven't done anything yet."
"But you are going to."