“In refusing to do which you make a grave mistake! Possibly you will tell me if it bears a certain mark?”

“A mark, you say?”

“Yes.”

The detective followed this answer by giving a description of the mark on Mr. Field’s silver.

Gorse promptly said:

“I never saw such silver as that!”

But, as Nick Carter was describing the mark, his face had worn a conscious look that did not escape the speaker’s keen eyes, and he said, mentally:

“The rascal is lying! He has seen that very silver if, indeed, it is not now in this very house.”

Aloud he said:

“Very well, then, you’re safe.”