I suppose you lost something in the way of a fee ?" The detective looked slightly uncomfortable over the question.
"Well, no, as it happened I didn't.

There was a sort of cousin--Mr.
Crosby"-- he nodded toward me--"visiting in the house and he footed the bill.

He seemed to think the young man hadn't intended to steal, and that it would be pleasanter all around if I left it for them to settle between themselves." "I protest!" I cried.

"I distinctly stated my conviction that Radnor Gaylord knew nothing of the bonds, and I paid him to get rid of him because I did not wish him troubling Colonel Gaylord with any such made-up story." "Mr.Clancy is testifying," observed the coroner.

"Now, Mr.Clancy, as I understand it, you discovered as you supposed the guilty man, and instead of going to your employer with the story and receiving your pay from him, you accepted it from the person you had accused--or at least from his friend ?" "I've explained the circumstances; it was a mere matter of accommodation." "I suppose you know what such accommodation is called ?" "If you mean it was blackmail--that's false! At least," he added, quickly relapsing into good nature, "it was a mighty generous kind of blackmail.