Page:The Millbank Case - 1905 - Eldridge.djvu/137

 "What right had you to throw suspicion on him?" she demanded.

"The right of the coroner to know every fact that bears on the case. It would have been as unjustifiable to conceal Oldbeg's purchase of a revolver, as it would to conceal the finding of the weapon."

"Why wasn't it there the morning of the eleventh?" she asked.

"My dear madam," he said with a gentle smile, "if we knew that, we'd know who the murderer is. We'd know it, that is: but possibly not in a way that we could prove."

"Precious little good that would do us," she answered.

"So much good that the chances are ninety-nine in a hundred that the proof would be forthcoming. There are few men who are shrewd enough to cover every trace."

"But these seem to be of the few," she said.

"We are not through with them yet," he replied; and then suddenly: "Has the new detective, employed by Hunter and his friends, been here?"

He had, and had made a critical examination of