"What do you advise me to do with it?"

"Give it to me."

"Have you any claim?"

She leaned a little nearer to him.

"At least I have more claim to it," she whispered, "than you to that
twenty thousand pounds."

"I do not claim them," he replied. "They are in my safe at this
moment, untouched. They are there ready to be returned to their
proper owner."

"Why do you not find him?" - with a note of incredulity in her tone.

"How am I to do that?" Laverick demanded.

"We waste words," she continued coldly. "I think that if I leave
you with the contents of your safe, it will be wise for you to hand
me that document."

"I am inclined to do so," Laverick admitted. "The very fact that
you knew of its existence would seem to give you a sort of claim to
it. But, Mademoiselle Idiale, will you answer me a few questions?"

"I think," she said, "that it would be better if you asked me none."