"Look here," he said, "the matter is easily settled. We will put this young lady in a cab and she shall bring the packet to my flat below. You and she shall open it, and if you find securities there I have no more to say, except to wish you both luck. If, on the other hand, you find the letters, it will be a different matter."
"I would rather go alone," she said. "If you will pay my cab, I will bring the packet straight back."
Wrayson and Barnes waited in the former's flat. Barnes drank two brandy and sodas, and walked restlessly up and down the room. Wrayson was busy at the telephone, and carried on a conversation for some moments in French. Directly he had finished, Barnes turned upon him.
"A friend of yours," he answered. "I have asked her to come round for a few minutes."
The colour burned once more in his cheeks. He looked down at his attire with dissatisfaction.
"I didn't want to see her again just yet," he muttered. Wrayson smiled.
"She won't look at your clothes," he remarked, "and I rather want her here."
"What for?" he demanded. "What has she got to do with the affair? I won't have strangers present."
"My young friend," Wrayson said, "I may just as well warn you that I think you are going to be disappointed. I am almost certain that I know the contents of that packet. You will find that it consists, as I told you before, not of securities at all, but simply a few old letters."
"Whatever they are," he said, "they meant a couple of thousand a year to Morry, and they were worth his life to somebody! How do you account for that, eh?"
The breath came through Barnes' teeth with a little hiss. He realized his position almost at once. He was trapped.
He walked up to Wrayson's side. His voice shook, but he was in deadly earnest.
"Look here," he said, "the contents of that packet, whatever they may be, are mine--mine and hers! You have nothing to do with the matter at all. I will not have you in the room when they are opened."
"The packet will be opened here," he said, "and I shall certainly be present."
"If you touch one of those papers or letters or whatever they may be, you shall be prosecuted for theft," he declared. "I swear it!"
"I will run the risk," he declared. "Ah! Baroness, this is kind of you," he added, throwing open the door and ushering her in. "There is a young friend of yours here who is dying to renew his acquaintance with you."