"I knew that."
"You knew it! How could you know it? How can you _know_ a negative any more than _prove_ it, except by the evidence of your senses?--and then you do not _know_, you only fail to perceive."
"Well, let us not get into metaphysics."
"All right. _Most_ of what I told you about Miracle Gold was a lie. _All_ I told you about making it was a lie. I was about to enter into a league with thieves to take stolen gold, and pretend to make it. I was going to do this for the sake of the fame, not the profit."
"A very dangerous kind of alchemy."
"Yes; but very common, though not in its application to real metallic gold."
"It would be worse for us to get into a discussion on morals than even on metaphysics."
"It would. Anyway I have told you what my scheme was. I told Mrs. Ashton that my clock was independent of my hands for winding up. You heard Williams, the publican, say they saw me wind up my clock last night. Well I was not near my clock last night."
"But he said he saw you."
"He did. Now you can understand how necessary it was for me to lie."