"Huh!" I snorted to myself, "confound him."
Yet I could not help smiling at my own folly, a minute later, in thinking that the Clutching Hand would leave any information in such an obvious place as an envelope. I threw the paper into a wire basket on the desk and went on sorting the other stuff.
Kennedy had by this time finished unpacking the box, and was examining a bottle which he had taken from it.
"Come here, Walter," he called at length. "Ever see anything like that?"
"I can't say," I confessed, getting up to go to him. "What is it?"
"Bring a piece of paper." he added.
I went back to the desk where I had been working and looked about hastily. My eye fell on the blank sheet of paper which I had taken from Bennett's envelope, and I picked it up from the basket.
"Here's one," I said, handing it to him. "What are you doing?"
Kennedy did not answer directly, but began to treat the paper with the liquid from the bottle. Then he lighted a Bunsen burner and thrust the paper into the flame. The paper did not burn!
"A new system of fire-proofing," laughed Craig, enjoying my astonishment.