"Who set you on?"
"I did," I replied, quickly. "She is not to blame. Upon me should fall the punishment, not upon her."
"It shall fall upon both of you, and upon your comrade who brought her to me, if only I can lay hands on him. There was a secret in that desk, was there not? Don't keep me waiting too long."
"There was," I said.
"Did you find it?"
"Not I, but another found it."
"Your friend, and that sharp-witted gentleman from Switzerland. A copy of a marriage certificate, was it not?"
"Yes."
"To think," he said bitterly, "that that fool should have had the desk in his possession all these years, and never discovered it? He is rightly served. He can play no fool's tricks where he is now.
"He is dead?" I said.