Nothing but the odd look he had read in Milo's face as Standish had glanced at him over his shoulder, would have led Brice to take such a chance.

But, all at once, it had seemed a matter of stark necessity.
The narrow escape from detection set his strained nerves to twitching.

He muttered to himself: "Come along then, you man-mountain! You wanted to get your sister out of the way, so you could go through my clothes and see if I was lying about being flat broke and if I had any incriminating papers on me.

Come along, and search! If I hadn't brains enough to fool a chucklehead, like you, I'd go out of the business and take in back-stairs to clean!" Milo was approaching the couch, moving with a stealthy lightness, unusual in so large a man.

Leaning over the supposedly unconscious Gavin, he ran his fingers deftly through Brice's several pockets.