"
"But there must be some explanation of that," Dartrey observed.
There was a short silence, significant of a curious change in the
atmosphere. Tallente's silence grew to possess a queer significance.
The ghost of rumours to which neither had ever listened suddenly forced
its way back into the minds of the other two. Dartrey was the first to
collect himself.
"Tallente," he said, "as a private person I have no desire to ask you a
single question concerned with your private life, but we have come to
something of a crisis. It is necessary that I should know the worst.
Is there anything else Miller could bring up against you?"
"To the best of my belief, nothing," Tallente replied calmly
"That is not sufficient," Dartrey persisted. "Have you any knowledge,
Tallente, which the world does not share, of the disappearance of this
man Palliser? It is inevitable that if you discovered his treachery
there should have been hard words. Did you have any scene with him? Do
you know more of his disappearance than the world knows?"
"I do," Tallente replied.
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