"The deuce you don't!" said Crane. He found himself suddenly annoyed without reason, that Tucker should have been interviewing and questioning his servants during his absence; stirring up trouble, he said to himself, and perhaps hurting the feelings of a perfectly good cook. Suppose she had decided to leave as a result of these activities of Solon's! He found he had not been listening to the account his friend was giving of the conversation, until he heard him say: "It seems Jane-Ellen had never been in this room before; she was very much interested in everything. I saw her looking at that splendid portrait of General Revelly, and she asked--in fact, she made me give her quite a little account of his life--" "A little lecture on the Civil War, eh?" said Crane. His tone was not wholly friendly and Tucker did not find it so. He colored. "Really, Burton," he said, coldly, "in case of crime, or of theft, a man's lawyer is usually supposed to know what it is best to do." "Possibly, but I see no point in having dragged the cook into it." "I see even less point in treating her on a different plane from any of the other servants." "It almost seems, Tuck, as if you enjoyed your constant interviews with her." "That is just, I regret to say, Burton, what I was thinking about you." "It seems to me," said Crane, "that this discussion is not leading anywhere, and might as well end." "One moment," exclaimed the other, "my story is not finished. When it came to be the turn of that boy Brindlebury, in whom I may as well tell you I have no confidence whatever, his manner was so insolent, his refusal to answer my questions so suspicious--Well, to make a long story short, your boot-boy, Burton, attempted to knock me down, and I had, of course, to put him out of the room. The situation is perfectly simple. I must ask you either to dismiss him, or to order the motor to take me to the train." There was a short pause, during which Crane very deliberately lit a cigarette. Then he said in a level tone: "The boy is already dismissed. He is out of the house at this moment, probably. As to the other alternative--the ordering the motor--I will, of course, do that, too, if you insist." But Tucker did not insist. "On the contrary," he said, "you have done all I could desire--more, indeed, for you have evidently decided against the boy before you even heard my side of the case." "One cannot always decide these cases with regard for eternal justice," said Crane. Before Tucker could inquire just what was meant by this rather disagreeable pronouncement, Smithfield appeared in the doorway to say that Jane-Ellen would be glad if she might speak to Mr. Crane for a moment.