Captain Rodgers went with the midshipmen a short distance up the corridor and waited at the threshold while Phil entered his room to obtain the letter.
“It’s gone,” came in a startled voice from the midshipman, after he had tumbled out on the floor the contents of his and Sydney’s valises. “I am sure I put it here,” he exclaimed anxiously. “It’s not here now.”
The lad’s face was pale and worried as he met his captain’s gaze at the door.
“We are under a close espionage,” Captain Rodgers said smilingly; “after all, that can do us no harm. We can hardly be credited with an attempt to run ourselves down. While you are about it, Mr. Perry,” he added jokingly as he started away, “you had better add this to your confessions to Takishima. I am afraid no one else would believe you, but he has known you both so long that I am sure he will not credit you with such barefaced villainy.”
“Everything has gone wrong.” Phil’s voice was almost tearful as he sat on the edge of the bed and contemplated his disordered valise after Captain Rodgers had gone. “What will they believe after finding this and the secret document both in my possession?”
“They’ll think you are a bungler as a confidence man,” Sydney replied, half smiling in spite of the serious aspect of the situation. “But we can explain it all to Taki.”
Phil’s face brightened at this note of optimism in his friend’s voice.
“I feel sure that Impey is behind all this trouble,” he said thoughtfully. “How on earth he found the lost document I can’t imagine, and I have my doubts whether it contained the information given by him to the ambassador. Unfortunately, that we shall never know. If we could trace this other letter to his door, I believe the whole insidious influence that is breeding ill feeling between the two nations would come to a stop.”
“The letter was picked up by me and handed to Impey’s friend. He claimed it and I hurriedly handed it over,” Sydney exclaimed. “If I had only refused and held on to it all this trouble could not have happened. Maybe to go with Takishima and talk to Impey we might force him to confess to his part in the plot and then expose him.”
“I am afraid he’s too clever to be trapped that way,” Phil returned smilingly. “The ambassador has cautioned secrecy, so we can’t divulge what he has told us. If I claimed before him that I had found the letter in his room he would either deny it or show great joy in finding that he had not lost it, professing that he was on the point of returning it when the assault occurred. He may even now have told the Japanese officials that he had recovered the letter for them only to lose it. It’s a mighty embarrassing position to be in, Syd,” Phil ended sourly.