"Hold on!" sharply interposed Ashton. "What are you about?"
"I'm going to bunk with McGraw. Thought I'd take these over and try to get in touch with the work."
"No, you sha'n't! I can't allow you to take those. They're the original drawings. They must not be taken out of my office."
"Original drawings?" repeated Blake in a tone of perfect innocence.
"Excuse me. I took them for copies."
"C-copies!" stuttered Ashton, turning white even to his lips.
"Yes. Hasn't Grif the originals?" asked Blake in a careless tone that was barely touched with surprise.
Ashton rallied from his fright. "No, you're mistaken, completely mistaken! These are the originals. I drew them myself. I couldn't trust to a draughtsman."
"Sure not, such important work as this span of yours. Grif tells me there's never before been anything built like this suspension span," agreed Blake, bending over to study the drawings. "But you'll admit some of these figures are rather slipshod for work on original drawings put in to win a competition."
"But I—I didn't compete. The idea came to me too late for that. I tried my utmost to be in time for the contest. I was working fast to get my plans drawn. That's why I made some errors—which you may have noticed."
Blake looked up with an ironical smile.