Page:The Clue of the Twisted Candle (1916).djvu/145

ably gives to one from whom he or she has borrowed large sums of money."

Kara made no answer, but opening a drawer of his desk he took out a key and brought it across to where T. X. was sitting.

"Here is the key of my safe," he said quietly. "You are at liberty to go carefully through its contents and discover for yourself any promissory note which I hold from Lady Bartholomew. My dear fellow, you don't imagine I'm a moneylender, do you?" he said in an injured tone.

"Nothing was further from my thoughts," said T. X., untruthfully.

But the other pressed the key upon him.

"I should be awfully glad if you would look for yourself," he said earnestly. "I feel that in some way you associate Lady Bartholomew's illness with some horrible act of usury on my part—will you satisfy yourself and in doing so satisfy me?"

Now any ordinary man, and possibly any ordinary detective, would have made the conventional answer. He would have protested that he had no