"But listen," he begged. "You are the only person with whom I have
come into touch who seems to know anything about this affair. I
should rather like to tell you exactly how I stumbled in upon it.
Why can we not exchange confidence for confidence? I want neither
the twenty thousand pounds nor the document. I want, to be frank
with you, nothing but to escape from the position I am now in of
being half a thief and half a criminal. Show me some claim to that
document and you shall have it. Tell me to whom that money belongs,
and it shall be restored."

"You are incomprehensible," she declared. "Are you, by any chance,
playing a part with me? Do you think that it is worth while?"

"Mademoiselle Idiale," Laverick protested earnestly, "nothing in the
world is further from my thoughts. There is very little of the
conspirator about me. I am a plain man of business who stumbled in
upon this affair at a critical moment and dared to make temporary
use of his discovery. You can put it, if you like, that I am afraid.
I want to get out. Nothing would give me greater pleasure, if such
a thing were possible, than to send this pocket-book and its contents
anonymously to Scotland Yard, and never hear about them again.

She listened to him with unchanged face. Yet for some moments after
he had finished speaking she was thoughtful.

"You may be speaking the truth," she said. "If so, I have been
deceived. You are not quite the sort of man I did believe you were.
What you tell me is amazing, but it may be true."

"It is the truth," Laverick repeated calmly.