“‘Because the letter happens to be one you would very much like to have in your possession, Paddington,’ the old gentleman said. Oh, I forgot to tell you that the visitor’s name was Paddington, but that doesn’t matter, does it? ‘Do you know what it was?’ Mr. Mallowe went on. ‘It was a certain letter which Pennington Lawton wrote to me from Long Bay two years ago. Now do you understand?’”
“‘You fool!’ said Paddington. ‘You fool, to keep it! You gave your word that you would destroy it! Why didn’t you?’
“‘Because, I thought it might come in useful some 220 day, just as it has now,’ the old gentleman fairly whined. ‘It was good circumstantial evidence.’
“‘Yes––fine!’ Paddington said, with a bitter kind of a laugh. ‘Fine evidence, for whoever’s got it now!’
“‘You know very well who’s got it!’ cried Mr. Mallowe. ‘You don’t pull the wool over my eyes! And I don’t mean to buy it back from you, either, if that’s your game. You can keep it, for all I care; it’s served its purpose now, and you won’t get another penny from me!’
“Well, I wish you could have heard them, then!” Loretta continued, with gusto. “They carried on terribly; the whole office could hear them. It was as good as a play––the strange man, Paddington denying right up to the last that he knew anything about the robbery, and Mr. Mallowe accusing him, and threatening and bluffing it out for all he was worth! But in the end, he paid the man some money, for I remember he insisted on having the check certified, and the secretary himself took it over to the bank. I don’t know for what amount it was drawn.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that before, Loretta?” asked Anita, reproachfully. “I mean, about the––the names Mr. Carlis called me, and his suspicions. I wish I’d known it half an hour ago, when he telephoned to me!”
“That’s just why I didn’t tell you, Miss Lawton!” responded Loretta, with a flash of her white teeth.
“Mr. Blaine told me to report to him this afternoon, and I meant to, but he didn’t tell me to talk to anyone else, even you. When you asked me to undertake this for you, you said I was to do just what Mr. Blaine directed, and I’ve tried to. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell you, but I thought I’d better not, at least 221 until I had seen Mr. Blaine. I was sure that if I said anything to you about it, you would let Mr. Carlis see your resentment the next time he called, and then he and Old Mr. Mallowe would get their heads together, and find out that their suspicions of all of us girls were correct. You wouldn’t want that.”
“Miss Murfree is quite right,” Blaine interposed. “You must be very careful, Miss Lawton, not to allow Mr. Carlis to discover that you know anything whatever of that conversation––at least just yet.”