the document was there?"

"The document was there," he admitted. "Perhaps you can tell me how
it would be addressed?"

Looking at her closely, it came to him that her indifference was
assumed. She was shivering slightly, as though with cold.

"I imagine that there would be no address," she said.

"You are right. That document is in my pocket."

"What are you going to do with it?" she asked.

"What do you advise me to do with it?"

"Give it to me."

"Have you any claim?"

She leaned a little nearer to him.

"At least I have more claim to it," she whispered, "than you to that
twenty thousand pounds."

"I do not claim them," he replied. "They are in my safe at this
moment, untouched. They are there ready to be returned to their
proper owner."

"Why do you not find him?"--with a note of incredulity in her tone.

"How am I to do that?" Laverick demanded.

"We waste words," she continued coldly. "I think that if I leave
you with the contents of your safe, it will be wise for you to hand
me that document."

"I am inclined to do so," Laverick admitted. "The very fact that
you knew of its existence would seem to give you a sort of claim to
it. But, Mademoiselle Idiale, will you answer me a few questions?"

"I think," she said, "that it would be better if you asked me none."

"But listen," he begged. "You are the only person with whom I have
come into touch who seems to know anything about this affair. I
should rather like to tell you exactly how I stumbled in upon it.
Why can we not exchange confidence for confidence? I want neither
the twenty thousand pounds nor the document. I want, to be frank
with you, nothing but to escape from the position I am now in of
being half a thief and half a criminal. Show me some claim to that
document and you shall have it. Tell me to whom that money belongs,
and it shall be restored."

"You are incomprehensible," she declared. "Are you, by any chance,
playing a part with me? Do you think that it is worth while?"

"Mademoiselle Idiale," Laverick protested earnestly, "nothing in the
world is further from my thoughts. There is very little of the
conspirator about me. I am a plain man of business who stumbled in
upon this affair at a critical moment and dared to make temporary
use of his discovery. You can put it, if you like, that I am afraid.
I want to get out. Nothing would give me greater pleasure, if such
a thing were possible, than to send this poc