“I think the Keatcham party is in it; and I think they are after bigger game than Archie. Maybe the train robbers were a part of the scheme—although I’m not so sure of that.”

“Oh, the robbers were in it all right. But now come to Miss Smith; where does she come in? Or are you as sure of her as Mercer was in Chicago?”

If he had expected to get a spark out of the Winter tinder by this scraping stroke, he was mistaken; the soldier did not even move his brooding gaze fixed on the hills beyond the house roofs; and he answered in a level tone: “Did you get that story from my aunt, or was it Mrs. Melville? I’m pretty certain you got your biography from that quarter. My aunt might have told her.”

“That would be betraying a lady’s confidence. I’m only a detective, whose business is to pry, but I never go back on the ladies. And I think, same’s you, that the lady in question is a real nice, high-toned lady; but I can’t disregard the[127] evidence. I never give out my system, but I’ve got one, all the same. Look here, see this paper?”—he had replaced the envelope in his pocket; he pulled it out again; or rather, so the colonel fancied, until Birdsall turned the envelope over, revealing it to be blank. “There’s a sheet of paper inside; take it out. Look at the water-mark, look at the pattern; then compare it with this letter”—handing the colonel the original envelope. “Same exactly, ain’t they?”

[127]

The colonel, who had studied the two sheets of paper silently, nodded as silently; and he had a premonition of Birdsall’s next sentence before it came. “Well, Mrs. Melville Winter, this morning, took me to Miss Smith’s desk, where we found this and a lot more like it.”

“You seem to be right in thinking the paper widely distributed,” observed the colonel.

“And you don’t think that suspicious?”

“I should think it more suspicious if the paper were not out on her desk. If she is such a deep one as you seem to think, she would hide such an incriminating bit of evidence.”

“She didn’t know we suspected her. Of course, you haven’t shadowed her a little bit?”

“There is a limit to detective duty in the case[128] of a gentleman,” returned the colonel haughtily. “I have not.”

[128]

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