Had he done so, he must have beaten me. Despite my oath and all my fiercely spoken threats, I had no intention of shooting him. It was all just bluff on my part; but I had acted well enough to prevent his having any suspicion of this. He was convinced that I was in grim, deadly earnest, and that his life hung on a thread, and he was poltroon enough to buy it at any cost.
The proceedings in the house were very brief.
He went straight to the library and sent the man on guard out of the room. He was as anxious to be relieved from the menacing barrel of my revolver as I was to get the papers and be off.
In silence he opened the safe and after a hurried search found the papers and offered them to me. They made a somewhat bulky package.
“Shew me,” I said.
He opened the package and held each while I ran my eye over it; and then folded them together in the portfolio and handed it to me.
“One thing more. A written authority from you to me in open terms. Just write ‘The bearer is acting by my authority,’ signed and sealed officially.”
Without hesitation he obeyed and wrote what I wanted.
“You will accompany me to the sleigh,” I said, as I pocketed the paper.
We left the room together arm in arm just as we had entered it, passed the men in the hall and down the steps to the sleigh.