"
"And you have really established all that!"
Steel had abandoned all pretence of rowing; his tone was one of
admiration, in both senses of the word, and his dark eyes seemed to
penetrate to the back of Langholm's brain.
"I can establish it," was the reply.
"Well! I think you have done wonders; but you will have to do something
more before they will listen to you at Scotland Yard. What about a
motive?"
"I was coming to that; it is the last point with which I shall trouble
you for the present." Langholm took a final glance at his notes, then
shut the pocket-book and put it away. "The motive," he continued,
meeting Steel's eyes at last, with a new boldness in his own--"the
motive is self-defence! There can be no doubt about it; there cannot be
the slightest doubt that Minchin intended blackmailing this man, at
least to the extent of his own indebtedness in the City of London."
"Blackmailing him?"
There was a further change of voice and manner; and this time nothing
was lost upon Charles Langholm.
"There cannot be the slightest doubt," he reiterated, "that Minchin was
in possession of a secret concerning the man in my mind, which secret he
was determined to use for his own ends.
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