Page:The Millbank Case - 1905 - Eldridge.djvu/244

 *ford. "I advise you to see him, and let me be in a cupboard or behind a screen while he is here."

"Superb!" said Matthewson, with a vicious sneer. "You'll know all he's found out—steal his thunder! Excellent!"

"Mr. Matthewson," Trafford said, with a touch of dignity in his voice that his companion could but note, "I would be justified in resenting such a remark, and you are not justified in making it. Cranston has discovered nothing that I haven't known for weeks; but he's been in Bangor, and I know what he could find out there. You sent him there and made a cruel mistake when you did it. I would have stopped it, if I could. He's here now to tell you and, if I mistake not, to demand a price for his silence. If I'm wrong, no harm can come from my hearing. If I'm right, you're the man who want me to hear; it'll be the best protection you can have in the future."

At the mention of Bangor, Matthewson turned pale and then flushed. That it was made with the purpose of informing him that the detective knew the secret of his mother's early life, he could not