He extracted a monogrammed cigarette from a thin gold case.
"But look here," he went on, moving closer to Dale, "you didn't send for me to discuss this hypothetical poor depositor, did you? Mind if I smoke?"
"No." He lit his cigarette and puffed at it with enjoyment while Dale paused, summoning up her courage. Finally the words came in a rush.
"Mr. Fleming, I'm going to say something rather brutal. Please don't mind. I'm merely--desperate! You see, I happen to be engaged to the cashier, Jack Bailey--"
Fleming whistled. "I see! And he's beat it!"
Dale blazed with indignation.
"He has not! I'm going to tell you something. He's here, now, in this house--" she continued fierily, all her defenses thrown aside. "My aunt thinks he's a new gardener. He is here, Mr. Fleming, because he knows he didn't take the money, and the only person who could have done it was--your uncle!"
Dick Fleming dropped his cigarette in a convenient ash tray and crushed it out there, absently, not seeming to notice whether it scorched his fingers or not. He rose and took a turn about the room. Then he came back to Dale.
"That's a pretty strong indictment to bring against a dead man," he said slowly, seriously.
"It's true!" Dale insisted stubbornly, giving him glance for glance.
Fleming nodded. "All right."
He smiled--a smile that Dale didn't like.
"Suppose it's true--where do I come in?" he said. "You don't think I know where the money is?"
"No," admitted Dale, "but I think you might help to find it."
She went swiftly over to the hall door and listened tensely for an instant. Then she came back to Fleming.
"If anybody comes in--you've just come to get something of yours," she said in a low voice. He nodded understandingly. She dropped her voice still lower.
"Do you know anything about a Hidden Room in this house?" she asked.
Dick Fleming stared at her for a moment. Then he burst into laughter.
"A Hidden Room--that's rich!" he said, still laughing. "Never heard of it! Now, let me get this straight. The idea is--a Hidden Room--and the money is in it--is that it?"
Dale nodded a "Yes."
"The architect who built this house told Jack Bailey that he had built a Hidden Room in it," she persisted.
For a moment Dick Fleming stared at her as if he could not believe his ears. Then, slowly, his expression changed. Beneath the well-fed, debonair mask of the clubman about town, other lines appeared--lines of avarice and calculation--wolf-marks, betokening the craft and petty ruthlessness of the small soul within the gentlemanly shell. His eyes took on a shifty, uncertain stare--they no longer looked at Dale--their gaze seemed turned inward, beholding a visioned treasure, a glittering pile of gold. And yet, the change in his look was not so pronounced as to give Dale pause--she felt a vague uneasiness steal over her, true--but it would have taken a shrewd and long-experienced woman of the world to read the secret behind Fleming's eyes at first glance--and Dale, for all her courage and common sense, was a young and headstrong girl.