When the others had all gone, Mathias offered Thornton, whom he liked, a cigar: and the two sat together for a while over the fire.
“Well,” said Thornton, “did the interview go as you had expected?”
“Pretty much.”
“I noticed you questioned them chiefly about the Clorinda . But you have got all the information you need on that score, surely?”
“Naturally I did. Anything they affirmed I could check exactly by Marpole’s detailed affidavit. I wanted to test their reliability.”
“And you found?”
“What I have always known. That I would rather have to extract information from the devil himself than from a child.”