Do you suppose that unfortunate lad Stoner kept his knowledge to himself?
I don't! No--at once! Come, Bent's office is only a minute away--I'll send one of my clerks for him.

Painful, very--but necessary." The first thing that Bent's eyes encountered when he entered Tallington's private room ten minutes later was the black-bound, brass-clasped scrap-book, which Brereton had carried down with him and had set on the solicitor's desk.

He started at the sight of it, and turned quickly from one man to the other.
"What's that doing here ?" he asked, "is--have you made some discovery?
Why am I wanted ?" Once more Brereton had to go through the story.

But his new listener did not receive it in the calm and phlegmatic fashion in which it had been received by the practised ear of the man of law.

Bent was at first utterly incredulous; then indignant: he interrupted; he asked questions which he evidently believed to be difficult to answer; he was fighting--and both his companions, sympathizing keenly with him, knew why.