He said his name was Lander, and that he had been forced into the affair by Dragen. He had been one of the men who had made the search for the papers at my house, and afterwards had played the part of a plain clothes police officer at Hagar's, where he had found out that von Felsen was at the back of everything.
The latter's orders had been to recover possession of the papers at any cost; and when that had been done I was to be kept a close prisoner for a week. But von Felsen's terms had been, no papers no pay; and thus my declaration that they were in safe hands had caused a split and a quarrel; and Lander and one of the others had decided to go back to von Felsen for fresh instructions.
He had barely finished his story when the carriage stopped at von Felsen's house. Remembering that I had found it close shut when I was there before, I was surprised to see lights in several of the windows. I concluded that he had thought it safe to return there when he knew that I had fallen into Dragen's hands.
We got out and I told Lander to ask for von Felsen and say that we had a message from Dragen; and when the servant opened the door, I stood on one side and kept my face out of the light.
The fellow was inclined to be suspicious; and was going to shut the door in our faces on the pretence of going to call his master when I lurched against Lander, pushed him into the house and followed. Answering the servants' protests with a drunken oath, I staggered to a chair and flopped into it.
He stared at me for a moment, hesitating whether to try and put me out; and then knocked at the door of von Felsen's private room.
The sound of several voices reached us as he opened it; and after a pause von Felsen came out. I let my head loll forward so that he should not at first see my face; and he spoke to Lander. "Who are you, and what do you want?" he asked sharply.
Having no cue from me, the man was at a loss for a reply; so he motioned toward me and muttered something about the papers.
"Turn up the light in the library," he told the servant; and then to us: "Come in here;" and he led the way.
I rose and staggered after them, lurching first against the servant as he came out of the room, and then against von Felsen, who stood holding the door. In this way I shouldered him into the room and then shut the door.