Page:The Millbank Case - 1905 - Eldridge.djvu/246

 Matthewson flushed and an angry retort leaped to his lips. This, however, he suppressed and made necessity to ask the cause of the visit.

"I've come to report," said Cranston. Then, as the other waited, he added:

"I've been at work in Bangor." Then, after another pause: "I've learned things in Bangor that you ought to know."

"It relates to the murder?"

"No, not directly. It relates to Theodore Wing's mother." He said it defiantly; as if he was throwing down the gage of battle.

It required a mighty effort on Matthewson's part to control himself, and yet he knew that to fail meant that this terrible thing, which as yet remained unspoken, would be uttered in words and that he must hear it.

"I have become satisfied," he said slowly and with an effort to control himself and appear dispassionate, "that the identity of Wing's mother has no bearing on the murder or on the discovery of the murderer. You will, therefore, drop that part of the investigation and confine yourself to the other