The remark threw a chill over the talk, that made it a little difficult to break the embarrassed silence that followed. At last, Hunter said:
"It was too dangerous to risk turning any general question in that direction. Besides, Trafford had the first shy at that."
"Mr. Hunter is right," Henry Matthewson said, with that tone that men described as "masterful," and which generally prevailed with Charles, in part because it so much resembled his mother's. "It would have been too much risk."
"What are you going to do?" demanded Charles; "let the papers fall into Trafford's hands, to be used against us, or sold back to us at an enormous price? Wing's death came at a strangely opportune time; are we going to throw the chance away?"
"If there were papers," Henry affirmed, "McManus or Trafford had them almost before we heard of the murder. We want to know whether there were papers or not, but we don't want to advertise their existence. If we get a chance to buy, we may think ourselves lucky."
"Trafford!" said Hunter with a touch of scorn
