“Who in the fiend’s name are you, anyway?”
“Nicholas Carter.”
Montgomery had started to rise, but at the sound of that name he sank back with glassy eyes.
“You—you——” he faltered. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to have a little talk with you. Could you load a few cigarettes for me, Mr. Montgomery?”
Had a bomb exploded at Montgomery’s feet he could not have been more startled than he was then.
He sprang forward in his chair and stared at the great detective as one fascinated.
“When you speculated with the money belonging to John and Louise Lansing, why did you not tell them?”
Montgomery’s white lips moved but gave no sound.
“After you lost that money, why have you tried to make your wards believe that you were going to invest it in the Royal Ophir mine?”