“I can prove it by as many witnesses as you wish to call.”
“Now, about these letters, Hawkins,” Sperry said. “The letters in the bag. Have you still got them?”
He half rose—we had given him a chair facing the light—and then sat down again. “What letters?”
“Don’t beat about the bush. We know you have the letters. And we want them.”
“I don’t intend to give them up, sir.”
“Will you tell us how you got them?” He hesitated. “If you do not know already, I do not care to say.”
I placed the letter to A 31 before him. “You wrote this, I think?” I said.
He was genuinely startled. More than that, indeed, for his face twitched. “Suppose I did?” he said, “I’m not admitting it.”
“Will you tell us for whom it was meant?”
“You know a great deal already, gentlemen. Why not find that out from where you learned the rest?”