"Do you mind telling me what this is, Miss Beverley?" he asked.
"It is a roll of bills," she replied, "that belonged to Mr. Phillips. I promised to see them handed over to his wife."
Brightman glanced at the address and balanced the envelope on the palm of his hand.
"It is against the law," he told her, "for a passenger to be the bearer of any sealed letter."
"I am very sorry," she said, "but the packet which you have did not come from America at all. It was sealed up on board this ship at the time when I accepted the charge of its delivery. There is no letter or communication of any sort inside."
"You will not object," the detective enquired, "to my opening it?"
"I can assure you," she repeated, "that I saw the notes put inside an empty envelope. Mr. Crawshay will tell you that my word is to be relied upon."
"Implicitly, Miss Beverley," Crawshay pronounced emphatically, "but under the circumstances I think no harm would be done if you allowed our friend just to glance inside. The notes can easily be sealed up in another envelope."
"Just as you like," she acquiesced coolly. "You will find nothing but bills there."
Brightman tore open the envelope and glanced inside as though he did not intend further to disturb it. Suddenly his face changed. He shook out the contents upon the little table. They all three looked at the pile of papers with varying expressions. In Katharine's face there was nothing but blank bewilderment, in Crawshay's something of horror, in the detective's a faint gleam of triumph. He pressed his finger down on the heading of the first sheet of paper.
"I am not much of a German scholar," he observed. "How do you translate that, Mr. Crawshay?"
Crawshay was silent for several moments. Then in a perfectly mechanical tone he read out the heading:
"'List of our agents in New York and district who may be absolutely trusted for any enterprise.'"
There was another dead silence, a silence, on Katharine's part, of complete mental paralysis. Crawshay's face had lost all its smooth petulance. He was like a man who had received a blow.
"But I don't understand," Katharine faltered at last. "That packet has not been out of my possession, and I saw the notes put into it."
"By Mr. Phillips," she declared steadfastly, "by Mr. Phillips and Doctor Gant together."