“He had no right to be there!”
“No, my lord, he had no right to be there. But he would not have been there if I had seen that the place was properly secured. I take all the blame.”
“Unfortunately,” the other flung at him contemptuously, “you cannot pay the penalty; that may fall upon me. Anyway, it was a d—d silly thing, Mr. Stubbs, to leave the place open, and you see what has come of it.”
“I cannot deny it, my lord,” Stubbs said patiently. “But I hope that nothing will come of it. I will tell your lordship first what my own observations were. I made a careful examination of the two chests of papers and I came to the conclusion that Mr. Audley had done little more than open the first when he was taken ill. One chest showed some disturbance. The upper layer had been taken out and replaced. The other box had not been opened.”
“What if he found what he wanted and searched no further?” Audley asked grimly. “But the point of the matter does not lie there. It lies in another direction, as I should have thought any lawyer would see.”
“My lord?”
“Who was with him?” Lord Audley rapped the table with his fingers. “That’s the point, sir! Who was with him?”
“I think I have ascertained that,” Stubbs replied, less put out than his employer expected. “I have little doubt that his man-servant, a man called Toft, was with him.”
“Ha!” the other exclaimed, “I expected that!”
Stubbs raised his eyebrows. “You know him, my lord?”