"'I done it all right, didn't I?' she says.
"'You did, my girl, and you deserve a medal.'
"I formally make over the silver watch to her, and promise her a silver chain to match. She is in ecstasies, but not quite happy because Agnold is not here. I tell her he will be here to-morrow, and then I examine the desk. An intense desire seizes me to open it. Right or wrong, I determine to do so. I'll chance what Agnold may say when he comes back. He should have remained. What made him go to London? He had no immediate business there. His immediate business was here.
"Not one of my keys will open the desk. But I can pick a lock, and I have some delicate tools with me. For an ambitious man, in the line to which I have devoted myself, they are necessary and invaluable.
"I set to work, and very soon, without injuring the lock in the least, the desk is open. There are papers in it, but no copy of a marriage certificate. Agnold said it would be most likely in a secret drawer, but no secret drawer could I discover.
"I was so much engrossed in the examination I was making that I did not hear the door opened. But open it was, and the shadow of a man fell upon me. Sophy's eyes were closed. She was tired. I looked up. A stranger stood before me."
[CHAPTER LI.]
SOPHY MAKES A STRANGE STATEMENT.
"I had never seen Dr. Peterssen, and I imagined it was he who had so unexpectedly presented himself. In that case I was in a quandary. The desk had been stolen from Dr. Peterssen's house, and the clever little thief was dozing in the room. I was implicated in the theft, and had forced the lock with burglar's tools. Without counting the cost we had taken the law into our own hands--usurped its functions, so to speak. Bringing such a man as Dr. Peterssen to book might prove an awkward fix for us. However, I determined to brazen it out.
"The desk being open, the wood of which it was made and the silver with which it was inlaid were not so apparent as they would have been had it been closed. The stranger's eyes did not rest upon it, but wandered to Sophy. My gaze followed his, and I was surprised to observe that there was no sign of recognition in his face. But he may be acting a part, I thought.