“Mr. Audley’s claim, my lord.”
Audley had expected this, yet he could not quite mask the effect which the statement made upon him. The thing that he had foreseen and feared, that had haunted him in the small hours and been as it were a death’s-head at his feast, was taking shape. But he was quick to recover himself, and “Oh!” said he. “That’s it, is it! Don’t you know that that’s all over, my man?”
“I think not, my lord.”
The peer took up a paper-knife and toyed with it. “Well,” he said, “what is it? Come, I don’t buy a pig in a poke.”
“Mr. Audley has found——”
“Found, eh?” raising his eyebrows.
Toft corrected himself. “He has in his power papers that upset your lordship’s case. I can still enable you to keep those papers in your hands.”
Audley threw down the paper-cutter. “They are certainly worthless,” he said. His voice was contemptuous, but there was a hard look in his eyes.
“Mr. Audley thinks otherwise.”
“But he has not seen them?”