Murgatroyd raised his eyebrows.
"Yes, it's up to me...."
Shirley shifted her position. She didn't like Murgatroyd in this new rôle, and yet there was something in the grim determination of the man that pleased her.
"I am sorry to remind you," he went on, the full responsibility of his office upon him, "that I am here to see Mrs. Challoner; to find out where Challoner is; to persuade her to persuade him to come back." Murgatroyd chopped out the sentences as though he were a machine.
"Then he wasn't caught in Chicago!" Shirley exclaimed almost jubilantly; and then touching him on the arm a bit familiarly, she added:—
"Billy, you don't really believe that Laurie murdered Colonel Hargraves?"
Murgatroyd laughed a short laugh.
"If I didn't know you, Shirley, I should imagine you were sparring for time.... If I didn't know you I wouldn't answer your questions. As it is, I must answer them in the same way that I would do anything you asked of me—short of crime."
"If you put it that way," returned Shirley, drawing away from him, her tone growing cold, "you needn't answer me at all."
Murgatroyd did not heed her.