When they saw me, a look of surprise and amusement came over their faces, and they both laughed heartily.
"What on earth have you been doing, Will?" Ethel cried. "Have you been to a suffragists' meeting on the way?"
Ethel affected to laugh at the suffragists, but in her heart I believe she would have liked to join them, and perhaps would have done so but for her brother.
"No," I answered; "what's the matter with me?"
"Look at your coat," replied St. Nivel, pointing to the breast of that garment.
I did look, and found that both my travelling coat and the coat underneath it had been cut completely through the left breast, where my pocket was, with a knife whose edge must have been as keen as that of a razor.
At the first shock I cried, half aloud—
"Good God! The packets have been stolen."
Then I recollected my forethought in placing them in my trousers pockets, and I dived my hands into them instinctively. Yes, thank God, they were all right; my two hands closed on their crisp sealed surfaces.
But how had it occurred?