"Do you dare to accuse me---- ?" "I accuse you of nothing more than this," said Tarling, "that I am perfectly satisfied that you have been robbing the firm for years.

I am equally satisfied that, even if you did not kill Mr.Lyne, you at least know who did." "You're mad," sneered Milburgh, but his face was white.

"Supposing it were true that I had robbed the firm, why should I want to kill Mr.
Thornton Lyne?
The mere fact of his death would have brought an examination into the accounts." This was a convincing argument--the more so as it was an argument which Tarling himself had employed.
"As to your absurd and melodramatic charges of robbing the firm," Milburgh went on, "the books are now in the hands of an eminent firm of chartered accountants, who can give the lie to any such statement as you have made." He had recovered something of his old urbanity, and now stood, or rather straddled, with his legs apart, his thumbs in the armholes of his waistcoat, beaming benignly upon the detective.
"I await the investigation of that eminent firm, Messrs.

Dashwood and Solomon, with every confidence and without the least perturbation," he said.

"Their findings will vindicate my honour beyond any question.