“Papers? What papers?”
“Some that arrived by special messenger yesterday, my lord.”
Warrington stared aghast.
“Those! He told me about them at dinner. Missing! D’you mean they’re lost? Stolen?”
“I thought perhaps you knew, my lord. Mr. Carling put them in the safe last night—or said he did—and this morning they were gone. Sir Robert was very put out, and so was Mr. Carling.”
“Gone! Good Lord! I wonder what was in them and who’s got hold of them?” muttered Lord Warrington in utter consternation. His glance lighted on the letters that Thomson held.
“What have you got there?”
Thomson looked at them with a preoccupied air.
“Only some letters, my lord, just come. I don’t know what to do with them, as Mr. Carling’s away.”