"I'll be hanged if you get it, anyway!" Laverick answered fiercely.
"You assassin! Scoundrel! To come here and make a cold-blooded
effort at murder! You shall see what you think of the inside of an
English prison."

The man laughed contemptuously.

"And what about the pocket-book?" he asked.

Laverick was silent. His assailant smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

"Come," he said, "I have made my effort and failed. You have twenty
thousand pounds. That's a fair price, but I'll add another twenty
thousand for that document unopened."

"It is possible that we might deal," Laverick remarked, kicking the
revolver a little further away. "Unfortunately, I am too much in the
dark. Tell me the real position of the murdered man? Tell me why he
was murdered? Tell me the contents of this document and why it was in
his possession? Perhaps I may then be inclined to treat with you."

"You are either an astonishingly ingenuous person, Mr. Laverick,"
his visitor declared, "or you're too subtle for me. You do not
expect me to believe that you are in this with your eyes blindfolded?
You do not expect me to believe that you do not know what is in that
sealed envelope? Bah! It is a child's game, that, and we play as
men with men."

Laverick shook his head.