It meant that the guilty man was safely behind the bars and that the evidence against him was complete.
"Confidential communications obtained by me are never made public except in a courtroom," he informed the woman.

"If the letter has no bearing on Mr.Whitmore's death it will be returned to Mr.Beard." "But I want it--that's what I came for," she pleaded.

"Can't you give it to me ?" "Not without Mr.Beard's consent," he replied in a tone of finality.
"And then only after I have assured myself of its lack of bearing on the Whitmore case." She bestowed on him a glance of such keen disappointment as to provoke a doubt of the innocence of the missive.

But he did not betray what was in his mind.

Instead, he rose to his feet, and, with a polite bow, said: "I may trust you to wait until I have completed my search.