"Oh no."
"How do you know?"
"It was locked up. That was why I went away."
A gleam came into the lawyer's eye as he realised, in a flash, what he had accidentally stumbled upon. Without looking, he knew that Solomon was making frantic but stealthy signs to Sumbowa, and by a kind of hypnotism he kept the little water-clerk's attention fixed upon himself. It would never do to let the half-caste guess what a mess he was getting his employer into. Mr. Vayne's next question, therefore, was purposely casual.
"You, yourself, had no key to the office then?"
"Oh no."
"Mr. Solomon had the only one?"
"Yes."
"Then do you suggest that he went away and left the office unlocked, because, if not, how did you get in and find the note? And if it was unlocked when you went in, how came it to be locked when you returned in the morning, you having no key and Mr. Solomon not having arrived?"
The witness looked bewildered for a moment and then, catching sight of Mr. Solomon's face, seemed to crumple up.