XIXColonel Primrose got his hat and walked up the empty street to my house with me. He looked around, as he got to the steps, and the parking lights of a nearby car blinked twice.
“We don’t need a guard any longer,” I volunteered.
“You don’t. Ginny does.” Then, as I turned in surprise to look at him, he said, “Are those letters she’s got here in the house, or is she telling the truth when she says they’re not?”
“What letters, for heaven’s sake?” I said. “Mr. Brent said he’d destroyed——”
He shook his head impatiently. “You’re being wilfully obtuse now. There have to be letters. Rufie’s ‘Forbes Allerdyce’ existed in two places: in the minds of three kids and in the letters Rufie wrote home. Mr. Brent says he destroyed the boys’ letters. It’s impossible. It’s obvious he didn’t destroy all
