“Now, gentlemen,” continued Mr Bickers, after having allowed a due interval for this last shot to go home, “I should not be justified in repeating these assertions unless I were also prepared to lay before you the proofs on which those assertions are based. I therefore requested my informant to let me have these. He has done this, and this parcel,”—here he took up a brown-paper parcel from the seat beside him—“containing the articles I have mentioned, was placed in my hands just as I came to this meeting. I have not even examined them myself, so that I am sure you will do me the credit of believing that when I place them just as they are in your hands, Mr Chairman, I cannot be charged with having tampered with my evidence in any way.”
Here he handed the parcel up to Mr Roe, amid dead silence.
“Had you not better open it yourself?” asked the chairman, who evidently did not like the business.
“No, sir; I request you will do so, and that Mr Railsford will confront the contents first in your hands, not mine.”
“There is a letter here addressed to you,” said Mr Roe.
“Please read that also,” said Mr Bickers, declining to take it.
Mr Roe knitted his brow and tore open the envelope.
His brows went up with a start as his eyes fell on the opening words. He read the letter through, and then, turning to Mr Bickers, said, “This letter is not intended for reading aloud, Mr Bickers.”
“Yes it is. I insist on your reading it, Mr Chairman.”
“If you insist, I will do it; but I think you would be wiser to put it in your pocket.”