"
Father Orin was still looking steadily at William Pressley, who returned
the look just as steadily with one that was easier to read than the
priest's. William Pressley's gaze expressed a large, patient tolerance
for prejudice, slightly touched with calm contempt, and there was no
doubting its entire sincerity.
"I think," said Father Orin, slowly, "that these banded robbers and
murderers must have learned of the plan through some one's inadvertence.
It is my opinion that the plan was betrayed by some one who did not mean
to betray it, and who may not have known what he had done."
William Pressley regarded him with an incredulous smile. "It is hardly
likely that the plan can have been revealed in any such way as you
suggest, sir," he said, with the politeness which is more exasperating
than rudeness. "You are certainly overlooking the fact that only a few
knew what the attorney-general intended to do, and that those who did
know are the ablest and most reliable men in the country. It is
therefore utterly out of the question to assume that any one among them,
any man of their intelligence and standing, could have made such a
blunder.
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