Bellamy was silent for several moments.

"I can't believe," he said, "that there is the least doubt but that
he has the money and the portfolio. I have made one or two other
inquiries, and I find that his firm was in very low water indeed
only a week ago. They were spoken of, in fact, as being hopelessly
insolvent. No one can imagine how they tided over the crisis."

"The man who was watching for you?" she inquired.

"He makes no mistakes," Bellamy assured her. "He saw Laverick enter
that passage and come out. Afterwards he went back to his office,
although he had closed up there and had been on his homeward way.
The thing could not have been accidental."

"Why do you not go to him openly?" she suggested. "He is, after
all, an Englishman, and when you tell him what you know he will be
very much in your power. Tell him of the value of that document.
Tell him that you must have it."

"It could be done," Bellamy admitted. "I think that one of us must
talk plainly to him. Listen, Louise, - are you seeing him again?"

"I have invited him to come to the Opera House to-night."

"See what you can do," he begged. "I would rather keep away from
him myself, if I can. Have you heard anything of Streuss?"

She shrugged her shoulders.