Pillgrim smiled blandly.
"And you accepted the command?"
"For a purpose, I did."
"You have not explained why you connect me with this affair. You spoke of some one whom you call Langdon. I don't know him."
"You—do!"
"Prove it."
"He addresses a note to you, calling you 'my dear Pillgrim,' and signs himself, familiarly, 'Langdon.'"
"Then you have been reading my letters—have you?"
"It was addressed to me, and put in my box at the hotel."
The second lieutenant turned pale, then red. He walked up and down the state-room several times in silence. He could not deny the fact alleged. While he walked, Somers explained how he had read the note, and then put it back in the box. Pillgrim understood it.