“And if it had been the case,” she asked, with a roguish smile, “would you not have every reason to be grateful to him as well as myself? But really—you don’t even know what I have brought for you. Aren’t you the least curious?”
“No military secret, I suppose?”
He spoke jestingly, but she nodded seriously.
“Yes—a great secret. Chance helped me, or I should hardly have got hold of it. There it is! But be sure I shall claim an adequate reward for it.”
She handed him a sealed envelope, which she had kept concealed under her dress. When Heideck, with growing excitement, spread out the paper it contained, he recognised at the first glance the blue stamped paper of the English Admiralty.
No sooner had he read the first lines than he started up in the most violent excitement. His face had become dark red, a deep furrow showed itself between his eyebrows.
“What is this?” he ejaculated. “For God’s sake, Edith, how did you come by this paper?”
“How did I come by it? Oh, that’s quite a secondary consideration. The chief thing is, whether it is of any value to you or not. But aren’t you pleased with it?”
Heideck was still staring like one hypnotised at the paper covered with the regularly formed writing of a practised clerk’s hand.
“Incomprehensible!” he murmured. Then, suddenly looking at Edith almost threateningly, he repeated—