“One of them is missing; what have you done with it?”
“I haven’t got it. A paper? No.”
“My life insurance policy, it was.”
“An insurance policy! Yes, now I remember. I must confess I burnt it.”
“Did you? Then you ought not to have done so. It’s cost me a lot of trouble to get another.”
Said Rolandsen, “I was all in a flurry, and didn’t think. I beg you to forgive me.”
“There was another chest with several thousand Daler in it; why didn’t you take that?”
“I didn’t find that one.”
Mack had finished his calculations. Whether Rolandsen had committed the burglary or not, he would in any case make the finest culprit Mack could have wished. He would certainly make no secret of the affair, but rather declare it to every soul he met; the last boat’s crew would carry the news with them home, and so it would come to the ears of the traders along the coast. Mack felt he was saved.