Page:The Millbank Case - 1905 - Eldridge.djvu/262

 that not only had Trafford not got the papers, but that they were in the possession of an unknown man for whom the law was hunting. If he was found, the papers would pass into the possession of the State and the public!

"In other words, we don't know where they are?"

"We do know," answered Trafford, with the solemnity of a man who feels that he is approaching accomplished purpose, "that these papers were the cause of Wing's death. Tell me the man who was most concerned in getting possession of these papers and I'll give Wing's murderer to the hangman—or would, if you hadn't abolished the hangman in Maine."

Never had the case stood so naked before Matthewson as these words stripped it. For the murder itself he had felt comparative indifference, his interest in the papers overtopping all else. Since he was aware that the murdered man was his half-brother, he had been conscious of an approach to a feeling of relief that he was dead. Now, for the first time, he saw, as by lightning's flash, the strife