But there was no time. They might be
interrupted at any moment and before they were, there were things
she must find out.
"Where is that paper, now?" she asked Dale sharply;
"Why--the Doctor is getting it for me." Dale seemed puzzled by the
intensity of her aunt's manner.
"What?" almost shouted Miss Cornelia. Dale explained.
"It was on the tray Billy took out," she said, still wondering why
so simple an answer should disturb Miss Cornelia so greatly.
"Then I'm afraid everything's over," Miss Cornelia said despairingly,
and made her first gesture of defeat. She turned away. Dale
followed her, still unable to fathom her course of reasoning.
"I didn't know what else to do," she said rather plaintively,
wondering if again, as with Fleming, she had misplaced her confidence
at a moment critical for them all.
But Miss Cornelia seemed to have no great patience with her dejection.
"One of two things will happen now," she said, with acrid, logic.
"Either the Doctor's an honest man--in which case, as coroner, he
will hand that paper to the detective--" Dale gasped. "Or he is not
an honest man," went on Miss Cornelia, "and he will keep it for
himself. I don't think he's an honest man."
The frank expression of her distrust seemed to calm her a little.
She resumed her interrogation of Dale more gently.
"Now, let's be clear about this. Had Richard Fleming ascertained
that there was a concealed room in this house?"
"He was starting up to it!" said Dale in the voice of a ghost,
remembering.
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