'Quite right,' said Sir Samuel. 'Involves you inextricably.'
'And that things have gone so far that I am about to be arrested, tried, and convicted. Which he rightly thinks will be a great scandal. So it will—so it certainly will. He therefore proposes that I should make a clean breast of the whole business, and give back the stolen bonds. I am sorry that I cannot do this, for a very simple reason—namely, that there is nothing to confess. But there is one thing that I must do. You placed the case in my hands——'
'I did. I asked you to find out. I have brought no charge against you. Have you found out?'
Mr. Dering spoke like a schoolmaster in one of his least amiable moods.
'It is a very improper thing for a person accused of a crime to be engaged in detecting it. So I resign the case—there are the papers. You had better go to some solicitor accustomed to this kind of work.'
'Stuff and rubbish!' cried Mr. Dering.
'Sir, you have deceived me.' Sir Samuel's face was gradually resuming its normal length. 'You promised to confess, and you have not. You as good as confessed just now.—This man is clearly, unmistakably guilty,' he added, turning to his brother.
'I have not asked you, my Partner,' Mr. Dering added, more softly, 'to give up the case. I have heard what is said. I have observed that the so-called case is built up entirely on conjecture.'
'No—no,' said Sir Samuel. 'It is a sound structure, complete in every part.'
'And there is nothing as yet to connect any man with the thing—not even the man Edmund Gray.'