"Are you in a hurry to take me with you?" asked Mr. Mitchel coolly.
"Why do you ask?"
"Because if not, I should like to ask you one or two questions."
"You may do so."
"First, then, as the robbery was committed on a moving train, will you tell me how you suppose it to have been accomplished, since the passengers were searched?" Mr. Barnes had his own idea on this subject which he did not choose to tell. He thought it well, however, to pretend that he had still another theory. At least he could observe how Mr. Mitchel received it.
"As you say, all were searched. The first was Mr. Thauret. Nothing was found. Let us suppose a case. This man Thauret was in the same carriage with the woman Rose Mitchel. When the train stopped at New Haven, suppose that he took the satchel, left the train and passed it to you through the window of your section, thinking that only his carriage would be searched. After his own examination, he left the train at Stamford. Why may he not have tapped upon your window and have received back the satchel?"
"That would make him my accomplice. You are wrong. I do not know the man at all."
"You admitted having met him when Miss Dora Remsen introduced him to you."
"Once only. At a gaming table. That is why I was displeased to see him in the home of my intended. Passing the robbery then, for despite my denial you may think your explanation correct, and a jury might agree with you, let us come to the murder. Do you suppose a man would make a wager to commit a crime, and then go to the extreme of killing a woman."