Page:The Millbank Case - 1905 - Eldridge.djvu/241

 Trafford did not deem it best to answer this directly, but instead went on, as if nothing had been said of objection:

"You saw Charles Hunter and his brother Frank—but were they all?"

Matthewson drummed on his desk and looked out of the window. What was there, he asked himself, that was drawing him into this tragedy, of which he really knew nothing? Did this man know also what Cranston had discovered? Was there, after all, to grow out of this murder, of which he knew nothing, a scandal that was to overwhelm his family, and finally destroy the great influence they exercised in the State?

While he asked these questions of himself Trafford waited, the model of patience. If he had anything to disturb his mind, he did not show it. Evidently, Matthewson could take his time and be sure that the other would be there to receive his answer, when he was ready to give it. Finally Matthewson turned to the detective and said:

"I was in Millbank on my own private business. I saw the men whom that business concerned and no