“Wednesday afternoon, at five o’clock.�
“To-day is Saturday, Mr. Lynne. I saw you in this office yesterday. After I had gone, you talked with Mr. Oaks, and you told him that you——â€�
“I told him that I had arrived here the preceding day. I know. It was a lie—and an unnecessary one.â€�
“Mr. Oaks knew that it was an untruth. He saw you at the theater Wednesday night.�
“I know. I saw him there, too. I remembered it after I had gone. I did not know whether he had seen me there or not, but acting upon the idea that he had done so and would remember me, I decided to admit the truth to-day.�
“Just why did you deceive him about it in the beginning?�
Lynne shrugged his shoulders and uttered a low chuckle before he replied. Then he replied:
“Well, there was no good reason for it. I had not been in New York since I was a kid, and I am twenty-six years old now. After the theater was out, I determined to see some of the sights, and I saw rather more of them than I had bargained for. I got into bad company and drank too much. I was also robbed of all the cash I had about me—and, as a matter of fact, very nearly all that I had in the world. I wasn’t proud of the circumstance, and so—I lied about it.â€�
“Would you mind telling me where you went that night?�
“Yes, I would mind. I’d rather forget it.�