so
roughly. "Thank heavens!" he said. "Now we can have a moment's breathing
time, to see what we can do for these fellows who want to teach us how
to manage our affairs."

"In the first place," Weiss said, "what about that paper we signed? I
can understand your wanting to hold it over us while we were at war. It
was a fair weapon, and you had a right to it, but now we are united
again you can see, of course, that although your name isn't on it, it
would practically mean ruin to our interests if the other side once got
hold of it."

"If I had that paper," Duge said quietly, "I would tear it up at this
moment, but I regret to say that I have not. It was stolen during
my illness."

"We know that," Weiss answered. "We know even in whose hands it is."

Phineas Duge looked up inquiringly.

"Norris Vine has it," Weiss continued. "We have offered him a million,
but he declines to sell. He would have used it for his paper before now,
and we should have been on the other side of the ocean, but for the fact
that John Drayton advised him not to. Now he has taken it with him to
London. He is going to ask Deane's advice. At any moment the thing may
come flashing back. We may wake up to find a copy of that document in
black and white in every paper in New York State."

"You have offered him a reasonable sum for it," Phineas Duge said, "and
he declines to sell. Very well, what do you propose to do?"

"It was stolen from you," Weiss said. "He may justly decline to treat
with us; but it is your property, and you have a right to it."

"You propose, then?" Phineas Duge asked.

"That you should catch the _Kaiserin_ to London to-morrow," Higgins
said, "and find out this man Vine. The rest we are content to leave with
you, but I think that if you try you will get it."

Phineas Duge sat quite still for several moments. He sipped his wine
thoughtfully, threw his cigar, which had gone out, into the fire, and
lit a cigarette. He appreciated the force of the suggestion, and a trip
to Europe was by no means distasteful to him, but he was not a man to
decide upon anything of this sort without reflection.

"A week ago," he said softly, "even a day ago, and my absence from New
York would have meant ruin. If I leave the country to-morrow, and trust
myself upon the ocean for six days, what guarantee have I that you will
keep to any arrangement which we might make to-morrow?"

"We will sign affidavits," Weiss declared, "that we will not, di